


Tears of an Owl

by Alien_Softie



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angsty Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale Falls, Aziraphale Whump (Good Omens), Blood and Violence, Dark Aziraphale (Good Omens), Demon Aziraphale (Good Omens), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Fussy Aziraphale (Good Omens), He/Him Pronouns For Aziraphale (Good Omens), He/Him Pronouns For Crowley (Good Omens), Hurt Aziraphale (Good Omens), Hurt/Comfort, I got carried away with my imagination, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Injury, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Original Character(s), Protective Crowley (Good Omens), Sad Crowley (Good Omens), Tags May Change, They/Them Pronouns for Beelzebub (Good Omens), Torture, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:47:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 29,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28331130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alien_Softie/pseuds/Alien_Softie
Summary: Months after the little apocalypse that couldn't occurred, Aziraphale and Crowley have gotten used to living in comfort without the interference of Heaven and Hell to a fault.Heaven still holds a grudge against the two for preventing the war and decide to matters into their own hands, by kidnapping them and having Aziraphale fall in front of Crowley.Perhaps making the angel fall wasn't the best idea.
Comments: 54
Kudos: 130





	1. Goodbye of an Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is my first time writing a fanfic, so I'm hoping this isn't too bad. I know the whole 'Aziraphale falling' thing has been done a hundred times already but I wanted more owl demon Aziraphale content and this story somehow turned angsty. Not sure how. Anyways I hope whoever reads this enjoys :)
> 
> Mind the tags, the poor husbands are going to be sad.

It was supposed to be a day just for the two of them. 

Crowley had everything organized; he had planned to take his angel out to the Ritz, bring him back to his flat after taking a stroll around the park and proudly show off the photo of the cottage he plans on getting for the two of them (after asking if Aziraphale wants to live with him, of course). He rarely planned things through. However, today was thought out to the core. He even chose what music he would play during their drive to the Ritz. It was going to be perfect. 

But God couldn’t allow him to have that.

Instead, Crowley was forced to kneel by Uriel and Sandalphon whilst Gabriel ridiculed Aziraphale ruthlessly in front of all of Heaven to witness. Crowley squinted his eyes at the glaring, intense lights of Heaven and wished he still had his glasses on. Frowning deeply, he remembered how he was walking to the bookshop to get Aziraphale so they could go about their day but they got abducted by the archangels. He kept repeating to himself that if he had gotten to the angel faster, all of this could have been avoided somehow. His racing thoughts were halted when he heard Aziraphale feebly attempting to convince Gabriel that he was just trying to do the right thing by stopping the world from ending as the angel tugged at the ropes that were tied around his wrists firmly. 

“Well guess what, sunshine? None of that matters now,” Gabriel said, grinning too forcibly for it to be genuine and put his hands together, leaning into Aziraphale’s personal space. “From the time you’ve been with us, all you did was cause problems. I will never understand why the Almighty chose you to guard the Eastern Gate. I mean look at you.”

The archangel moved back as he gestured his hand at Aziraphale and shook his head with the disappointment visible on his face, as though he was a father scolding his child. “You’ve sullied the temple of your celestial body with that gross matter. What was it called again?”

“Food,” answered Sandaphon, grip tightening on Crowley’s shoulder painfully, almost breaking the bone when he heard the demon hissing in a low tone.

“Whatever.” Gabriel’s smile faltered, straightening his back as he stared down at the principality. The different ranks of angels silently watched the scene before them, no one dared to speak up without permission. A few tore their eyes away when Gabriel continued his rant. “A gluttonous angel eating excessively, indulging himself with meaningless earthly matters, giving away his sword that She bestowed onto him and interfering with the Great Plan. You’re a disappointment, not only to me but to the Almighty herself. You’ve strayed away from Her light. And you’ve even gone as far as... _fraternizing _with that demon. The enemy. _Our _enemy, Aziraphale.”____

_____ _

Aziraphale’s chest tensed as he forced down the tight lump in his throat, glancing at Crowley who looked one second away from strangling Gabriel and made himself regain eye contact with his ex-boss. He almost flinched at how cold the archangel’s eyes looked, wolfishly staring down at him without blinking despite the polite smile that Gabriel always seemed to hold. 

_____ _

“But don’t worry,” Gabriel continued, grin widening slowly with a subtle menace laced into it, paying no attention to Aziraphale’s expression that gradually turned hopeful as he signaled for Michael to come over. “Since the hellfire didn’t do away with you, we thought of the next best thing. If you want to be with that demon so badly, why don’t you just join him in Hell?”

_____ _

A single, small gasp came from the audience of angels; Crowley’s face fell and thrashed around against the archangels’ hold, not caring when a sword was pointed at him by Uriel. He clenched his jaw in transparent rage once he saw Aziraphale’s horrified look and scowled at the side of Gabriel’s head.

_____ _

“Gabriel, you purple eyed bassstard! Just wait till I get my hands on you, I’m going to boil your damn teeth and-”

_____ _

“Crowley!” Aziraphale interrupted, frowning disapprovingly and shook his head at the fuming demon. “There’s no need for all of that. Honestly, dear, you’re making a scene.”

_____ _

Crowley gaped and spluttered. “I’m making a scene? Angel, these asshats want you to fall and for what? Eating a crepe? Oh, how demonic. Lord, save us from this great evil.” 

_____ _

“Well when you put it like that-”

_____ _

“Enough!” Gabriel snapped, shooting a glare at Crowley before turning to Aziraphale, quickly regaining his calm persona that seemed as though it was about to break any moment now. “Aziraphale. You yourself know that you should have fallen a long, long time ago but the Almighty was generous enough to stall the time you finally fell. Although, since I would hate to see another angel fall, I’m giving you a chance to save yourself and repent.”

_____ _

“...how?” Aziraphale quietly asked, furrowing his eyebrows whilst Crowley gritted his teeth, staring at Gabriel with distrust. The angels watching seemed to look forward ever so slightly in interest. 

_____ _

“Simple. Say that you regret stopping Armageddon, that you will never step foot back on Earth and remain here in Heaven. Along with vowing that you will never interact with that serpent again,” Gabriel stated with a sigh and tightened his lips, seeing Aziraphale's jaw drop. “Why are you looking at me like that? I’m doing you a favor, sunshine.”

_____ _

He felt his hands sweat, his forehead began to ache from stress as he looked away from his ex-boss. Aziraphale could easily comply and do what Gabriel wanted; it would save him from the agony of falling. He was about to open his mouth until the brutal realization hit him. 

_____ _

He would never see Crowley again.

_____ _

Aziraphale clenched his jaw so tightly that it almost hurt, trying to swallow and shook his head faintly. Never being able to talk to Crowley, not being allowed into his precious bookshop again and having to be in Heaven with angels who made it clear they looked down on him. That reality would break him more than falling. 

_____ _

“Angel! What the hell are you waiting for? Do what he wants!” Crowley shouted, hating how defeated his voice sounded. He stared at Aziraphale, selfishly hoping he would look at him one last time before he decided to stay in Heaven. Crowley already knew he would choose to stay in Heaven, he had to. As much he wanted to avoid admitting it to himself, he obviously didn't want to stop seeing Aziraphale, but the thought of his angel falling terrified him. Crowley didn’t want to see the being he loved for six thousand years turn into something corrupted or go through the pain of it. “Aziraphale, for the love of Go- Sat- someone! Just say it!”

_____ _

The entirety of Heaven along with Gabriel waited impatiently for Aziraphale’s answer. He looked at Crowley from the corner of his eye, heart aching when he saw how desperate the demon looked. Aziraphale frowned, taking a breath he didn’t need and looked up at Gabriel, pushing away the icy fear in his chest as much as he could. 

_____ _

“No.” 

_____ _

“No?” Gabriel repeated, glimpsing at Michael who opened and closed her mouth, shaking her head at him with confusion.

_____ _

Aziraphale fixed his posture, tilting his nose up slightly and clenched onto the handles of the chair he was tied down to subconsciously. “I don’t regret stopping a thing or for being with Crowley. I helped stop Armageddon for the greater good. I love living on Earth and the humans on it. Why should I fall for that? I refuse to repent for something that is not even wrong. Meeting Crowley was the best thing that happened to me and I would fall multiple times if that would mean I could stay with him. Gabriel, you told me we were on the...’right’ side. Almost nothing we ever felt right.”

_____ _

Heaven was dead silent, the only noise that was heard after Aziraphale’s speech was the sound of a harsh slap. 

_____ _

“Looks like you’ve spent too much time on Earth,” Gabriel spat, rubbing his left palm and made it obvious he was disregarding Crowley’s curses. After nodding at Michael, he put his hands together once more, tutting. “It saddens me how far gone you are, Aziraphale. I hope you enjoy your time downstairs.”

_____ _

Aziraphale winced at his stinging cheek and attempted to scoot his chair back when Michael began walking to him. She went behind him, heaving the sword that gleamed with holy light she manifested up and plunged it into the ground, creating a circular opening. With an effortless snap, the ropes that were tightly tied around Aziraphale’s wrists were gone. He was forced to stand up by Michael, stumbling backwards towards the opening as she tugged at his forearm viciously. 

_____ _

“I told you your boyfriend wouldn’t give you a special treatment in Hell,” Uriel seethed, holding their sword tighter and spared a glance at Crowley who was struggling against their grip hopelessly. 

_____ _

“Angel! No, fuck!” Crowley cried out, eyes burning as he tried to stand up to run over to Aziraphale. He hissed when Uriel pressed their sword against his neck rougher, glaring at them before snapping his head towards Gabriel’s direction. He could feel his heart pound against his chest as he dug his fingers into the insides of his palms, tensely grinding his teeth more. “You can’t just fucking do this to him! Fucking- please! Just stop this!” He pleaded, not caring how he was resorted to begging as the panic overwhelmed him when he saw Michael dragging Aziraphale closer to the opening. 

_____ _

Gabriel only gave a smile to Crowley as a response, looking back at Aziraphale and Michael. A handful of angels grimaced and turned their heads away, not having the desire to continue watching in contrast to those who believed the ‘traitor’ was getting what he deserved. 

_____ _

Crowley was for once thankful he didn’t have to breathe, he would probably be holding his breath if he had to. He continued to thresh around, opening his mouth to yell again before being cut off by Aziraphale.

_____ _

“My dear boy.” Aziraphale tried to give Crowley the best reassuring smile he could muster, letting his wings manifest into the physical plane, eyes becoming glassy with tears. He cleared his throat, wincing when Michael tightened her grip on his upper arm abruptly. “My dear, it’s alright. I’ll see you soon. Do take care of yourself and keep an eye on the bookshop if I don’t return for longer than expected. I love you so much, Crowley and I apologize for not saying it sooner.” 

_____ _

The demon froze, barely dropping his jaw and despised how he could feel the urge to cry become stronger. He wanted to say something, say anything to the angel but to his displeasure, no words came out of his mouth. 

_____ _

“Cut the sentimentalisms and fall already,” Gabriel demanded, pressing his hands together tighter as he rolled his eyes, seeming way too eager to get rid of the angel.

_____ _

Aziraphale looked at Crowley who was shaking his head frantically and stiffly straightened his spine as he took a step back. He longed to go into Crowley’s embrace and to be with him, but he shoved that thought away when he saw Uriel press their sword against Crowley’s neck harder as if to warn him to not try anything. Aziraphale smiled at him yearningly before leaning his head up upwards towards the ceiling and took a final step back into the opening. 

_____ _

As he plummeted towards Hell rapidly, he could’ve sworn he heard Crowley scream his name.

_____ _


	2. Without You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small heads up; For Beelzebub, I write them with they/them and ze/zir pronouns 
> 
> TW: Mild Gore and blood
> 
> Also the snek demon is big sad

The ear-splitting sound of Crowley’s cry resonated across the pure white space; blood trickled down the side of his neck slowly from the pressure of Uriel’s sword but his mind was occupied by other things. 

“Bastards!” he bellowed with a quiver in his voice, looking around at every angel he could see from his kneeling position and rapidly blinked his sorrowed filled eyes. He refused to cry in front of them, especially in front of the Archangel Gabriel. “All of you! You’re supposed to be the good ones and yet you forced him to fall?! You didn’t even let him have a trial when you tried to kill him with hellfire! Hell let me have a trial. What kind of bloody bullshit is that?! And 𝘺𝘰𝘶,” he hissed as he scowled at Gabriel. “How have you not fallen yet? Could’ve sworn a fuckwit like you would have already.”

Gabriel hummed to himself when Michael sealed the opening back up effortlessly, his smile fading as he turned to Crowley. He folded his hands behind his back, the polite persona he built up was broken, and returned the glare Crowley had fixated on him. 

“We didn’t force him to fall, he fell on his own will. Besides he was bound to fall eventually, but there could have been a slim chance this could’ve been avoided if you never interacted with him and if he never went to Earth. I don’t understand how he thinks he’s in love with something as lowly as a demon,” scoffed the archangel, shaking his head at how torn up the serpent appeared and wrinkled his nose in disgust. “You’re both pathetic. Well at least now you two can be in ‘love’ while burning in Hell.”

A weak growl came from the back of Crowley’s throat, the words that came out of Gabriel struck him in the heart, feeling the guilt flood within his chest.

“I wonder what hideous creature Aziraphale turned into.” Gabriel thought out loud, raising an eyebrow when he saw the fury in the demon’s face and lifted his hand up to his shoulder. “Hopefully we never have to look upon your faces ever again.”

With that, Crowley was miracled out of Heaven and back to the entrance of the bookshop, right where he was standing before he got taken. 

\----

People strolled past the bookshop underneath the bright sun, going about their different ways with numerous expressions plastered on their faces. The only thing they all had in common was that they didn’t notice the grief stricken demon standing in front of the shop, fists clenched tightly with his head lowered. Even if they did notice him, they chose not to speak to him and that was probably for the best. 

Crowley’s watery eyes were widened as he stared down at his shoes, raising his head to glimpse through the front window of the shop. As his body lightly shook, he grabbed the doorknob and opened the entrance door, ignoring the closed sign. He went inside and stood in the middle of the store, Aziraphale’s home. Their home. 

A single fallen book was abandoned on the floorboards, the plump hands that should have been holding it were missing. The pages inside were bent awkwardly from the fall, Crowley picked it up and attempted to convince himself that Aziraphale was okay. That he was safe and waiting for him in the kitchen, ready to babble about how annoying it was to get rid of the customers. Crowley’s bottom lip trembled, gripping the book as tightly as he could. He could almost hear his angel reading to him as he usually did to pass the time. He would lay his head on Aziraphale’s lap, listen to him read in a hushed tone, and watch him change his facial expressions to react to what was on the page. The days during that time were quiet but tranquil.

Crowley should have appreciated those days more.

The demon shook his head, roughly wiping his eyes as he strained his mind to come back to the present. He put the book down on a table with care and snapped his glasses back on after healing the minor wound on his neck, faintly hearing the voice of Aziraphale reminding him that he doesn’t have to wear his glasses in the bookshop or around him. Crowley turned around and miracled himself to Hell, the place he would rather jump into a volcano than go back to again; not that he had much of a choice. 

He raced through Hell, the familiar smell of rot and burning sulfur made him want to gag as he shoved past the crowds of demons that were in front of him hysterically and darted to the throne room. He slammed the doors open, glaring at the demon in front of him who was calmly waiting for him.

“Welcome home, traitor,” Beelzebub droned, slumping down in their throne while leaning their cheek onto their fist. Piercing blue eyes focused on Crowley, watching him stomp to the center of the darkened room that somehow smelled worse than outside.

“Beelzebub. Where iss he?”

“What? No ‘lord’?”

“Where _is _he?” Crowley repeated with more edge and dug his nails into the palms of his hands, almost breaking the skin with the irritation burning in his chest.__

____

“I don’t know who ‘he’ iz. You might want to be more specific.”

____

“Bloody- Aziraphale! Don’t play stupid, you know where he is,” he snapped, glaring dangerously at the prince who didn’t flinch in the slightest. Rather, ze sat up and leaned on the opposite arm of the throne. 

____

“Coursze I know where he iz. He’s currently being welcomed with open arms as a newly fallen,” ze explained, mouth curling into a faint grim smile. The fly sitting on top of their head seemed to crawl forward as to stare down at Crowley too. “We’re taking our time to greet him with a special treatment. We haven’t had an angel fall in yearz, you know. Plus he was the one who helped stop the war so his greeting should be... 'distinctive’. But I guezz I should congratulate you.”

____

“Congratulate me for what?” Crowley questioned, already knowing the answer but he hoped for a different one. The dread ached in his heart at the mere thought of what they were doing to the angel, breathing shallowly whilst tightening his lips into a thin line. 

____

“For causing an angel to fall obviously.” Beelzebub rolled their eyes, putting their hand in front of their mouth, tiny flies landed near the rash on zir face. “I didn’t think another would fall again. I’m imprezzed with you, Crowley. So I have an offer for you. Ever since Ligur died, we’ve had an opening for a duke. You’re eligible to take that status. You did successfully tempt Eve, kill a duke and taint a soldier of Heaven. A principality no lezz. What do you say?’

____

“Fuck no,” scoffed Crowley, scrunching his face up and took a step forward. “I just came here for Aziraphale. I didn’t come into this damn place for some blasted promotion.”

____

“That’z a shame” they said sarcastically, lowering their hand and looked to the right wall. Beelzebub snapped zir fingers, opening a door that was littered with claw scratches. In between the cracks on it were black bugs that appeared to be dying; standing in the open space to Crowley’s infinite distress was the duke of Hell, Hastur. 

____

The grin on Hastur’s face was unnaturally wide, maggots were in some of the spaces of his rotten, yellow teeth and the frog that laid on top of his head was decaying. His mucky hands were holding a terribly mangled, torn off wing. Aziraphale’s wing. 

____

“Crowley,” he greeted with a false friendly tone, stroking the few feathers that were still attached to the wing in a soft, delicate way, not minding when golden blood dripped onto his shoes. “Y’know, I haven’t had this much fun in years. I never would've guessed that someone like that feathered bastard would yell that loudly. I wasn’t even done pulling this beauty out and he was already passing out. Funny stuff, eh?”

____

His knees almost gave out at the sight of the mutilated wing, seeing a handful of maggots biting into it, Crowley couldn’t help but retch. Hastur happily continued, clearly amused with Crowley’s reactions.

____

“Kept on screaming and crying out for you, I mean damn,” he snickered, narrowing his shadowy black eyes at Crowley. “Thought my ears were going to bleed. He even tried to pray a couple of times. As if that shit would help him. But you know what they say. An ear for an...eye? Mouth for an eye? I don’t remember. What I do remember is that you killed Ligur.”

____

The duke’s face darkened with his last sentence, the cheer that was previously there had gradually disappeared and was replaced with wrath. 

____

“So what? You’ve killed other demons yourself.” Crowley frowned, trying to play it off as if he was unbothered. He was thankful for the fact his glasses shielded his eyes as he glanced to the side nervously, knowing it would only fuel Hastur if he knew he was on edge. 

____

Beelzebub reached up and took the overgrown fly off their head, patting it. Ze placed it on the arm of their throne and rested their elbow on it as they listened to the conversation with interest. The fly buzzed offendedly. 

____

“I’m not talking about ‘other demons’,” Hastur growled and clenched tightly onto a handful of snowy white feathers that were struggling to stay attached to the wing, ripping them out with a brutal tug. Golden blood leaked down more, Crowley could’ve sworn he saw a small amount of black mixed in there. “You murdered him with holy water. In front of me. Did you think I would let you just walk around up there with your little angel after that? I think a little bit of payback was way past overdue, eh?”

____

The duke tilted his head to the side, a twisted smile began growing once again. He kept eye contact with Crowley as he lazily tossed Aziraphale’s maggot infested wing that was once gorgeous in front of him. It landed in front of his feet with a gut-churning thump, blood still pouring out from the wounds. Crowley’s golden eyes couldn’t help but stare at it, hands shaking and didn’t realize that Hastur was still talking to him. 

____

“There we go; you can keep that. Y’know hang it up on your wall like a trophy. Free of charge, don’t worry. My treat,” Hastur sneered, obnoxious laughter echoing throughout the throne room causing Beelzebub to roll zir eyes. He wheezed, wiping the saliva that dribbled out of the side of his mouth while he was laughing, looking proud of himself. His grin somehow widened more once he saw the hatred in Crowley’s expression. The duke stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles after. “Alright. Just wanted to say hello to you again, Crowley but I got to go back to welcoming the newcomer.”

____

“Hastur, you good-for-nothing arsehole, I’m going to kick your ass before ending you,” Crowley raged, stepping towards Hastur before snapping his foot back immediately after almost kicking the wing that was still on the floor. Hastur chuckled smugly and went through the door entrance from which he came from, the door slammed shut whilst locking itself.

____

Beelzebub remained silent as they summoned a petite voodoo doll that vaguely resembled a smiling angel with white blondish hair, holding it in zir right hand and summoned a couple of pins in zir other hand. Ze yawned as they stabbed a pin through the left eye of the doll and another in the opposite eye.

____

“Just...let him go.” Crowley tried to demand with strength yet his voice sounded drained. 

____

The Lord of Flies shrugged half-heartedly with a nod, piercing a pin through the doll’s abdomen. “We weren’t juszt going to keep him here. Training new demonszz can be a handful especially if they’re in that sort of condition.”

____

“What is that supposed to mean?”

____

Beelzebub raised their brooding gaze up, impaling another pin into the doll’s chest where the heart would be and slashed it down slightly, cotton stuffing falling out onto the seat of the throne.

____

“You always did ask a lot of questions.”

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that there will be comfort and "fluffy-ish" stuff soon, in chapter 4 I think. Just have to get through some of the aNgST. Thanks for reading and I'm planning on updating one more time later this week or if anything, next week.
> 
> Until next time, dears ❤


	3. Together Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! Sorta late to say that but y'know :)
> 
> I just wanted to post another chapter for the new year so here it is. Hope you enjoy, luvs

A pin was driven into the side of the doll’s left arm, more soft stuffing threatened to spill out further. 

“You can leave now. You do know that, right?” asked Beelzebub, not bothering to look at Crowley as they barely raised an eyebrow, continuing to abuse the toy in multiple particular spots. “It’sz going to be a bit until he’z ready.”

Crowley stared at the discarded wing and bent down to touch it, fingers tracing over lightly as if he was afraid to do added damage to it. He glared at the prince and shook his head with a low threatening hiss. “I’m not leaving without him.”

“Suit yourself.”

\----

Footsteps echoed as Crowley paced around the dim room stressfully, running his hand through his hair and avoided looking at the wing again. His body would react horribly each time he saw it; he grumbled to himself and would glance at the door where Hastur came out of before every second. Tension built up in his body, thinking about his missing partner. 

A snap came from Beelzebub, their gaze shifted towards the dilapidated entrance as it creaked open steadily. Ze watched Crowley’s head turn towards it, eyes searching for the angel with the rising fear noticeable in them. He gritted his teeth anxiously, lowering his glasses a bit before dropping them completely. 

Beelzebub smiled with coldness laced in it, grabbing onto the head of the angelic doll and ripped it off with a single yank. As the ill-treated parts of the doll descended to the ground, Crowley gaped while his hand intensely quivered. His pupils thinned into slits, filled with pure horror when he saw what was before him in the entrance. 

“ _Angel! _"__

____

Hastur and another demon that had whiskers were dragging the battered body of Aziraphale by the elbows, head hanging limply with injuries peppering his entire being. The clothing Crowley knew the other treasured dearly was torn apart by the seams, hair that was previously a light shade of blond was now stained with dried blood and from where Crowley could currently see, gashes were littered over his arms. The color of his blood was a mixture of red and black; Crowley’s stomach sunk at the sight of it. 

____

“Had to knock him out,” Hastur scoffed, looking over at Beelzebub with a huff. “Little shit was getting too aggressive. He almost bit my hand! I mean yeah, I bit him first but what the fuck.” 

____

Beelzebub frowned, humming thoughtfully and waved zir hand to signal for the two demons to let Aziraphale go. They nodded and tossed the once angel forward with little to no care, allowing him to fall face first to the ground. No sound came from the wounded demon as he laid there motionless.

____

Crowley shot daggers at everyone except Aziraphale, killing them in his mind but focused himself on the one who needed him most. He darted to Aziraphale and winced when he saw the deep cuts on his back, cradling him carefully whilst making sure not to touch any injuries. He brushed the dirty, matted hair from the other’s forehead, furrowing his eyebrows at how inky black his eyelids looked. They weren’t bruised to Crowley’s relief and concern. He muttered a curse and summoned a blanket, wrapping it around him tenderly. 

____

“Have fun training him,” the Lord of the Flies said in their usual monotonous voice, nearly smiling when Crowley glared at them.

____

“Is this some kind of trick?” he asked with caution, holding the unconscious demon tighter and watched everybody in the room. He waited for something, anything to go wrong and made sure nothing would catch him off guard. He wouldn’t allow it to happen again. “Are you just going to attack us or some bloody shit like that?”

____

Before Hastur could get an opportunity to lie to torture Crowley more, Beelzebub replied to his question with a headshake and rested their cheek against their fist. An unreadable expression was on their face as they stared at the two demons, subduing a smirk. “No trick. You’re both free to go. Do you not trust uszz anymore, Crowley? I told you that you can have him back so you can get out now. You have my word.”

____

When a laugh came from the duke, Crowley protectively held Aziraphale closer to himself and picked him up while keeping a watchful eye on the other demons. He stood there, remaining still as he waited for someone to attack them with apprehension. Once no one did, he clenched his jaw and miracled them both out of Hell and back to the bookshop. 

____

\--

____

Panic erupted from inside Crowley as he looked around the bookshop, trying to think of what to do first. He glanced down at Aziraphale who stayed limp, his bruised cheek pressed against Crowley’s chest, mouth barely hanging open. 

____

“Fuck!” Crowley yelled out in frustration after he tried to heal the wounds, rapidly breathing when they stayed put. He hurried over to the couch, laying Aziraphale down on his stomach after taking the now bloody blanket off of him. He began to pace before the sight of Aziraphale’s wings caught his attention. The memory of the detached wing nauseated him; he let out a somber sigh and crouched down beside the couch. 

____

Ever since he met the formerly known angel, he had never seen him this damaged. Slashes were scattered around his back, fury almost exploding when he saw a bite mark on Aziraphale’s left forearm. Crowley knew there were more unseen injuries which only seemed to fuel his suppressed jumbled emotions. Anger faded into sorrow when he scanned over the other’s wings. 

____

The wings were no longer white like before; they had a dark greyish-brown color to them with miniature white spots that freckled his wings up to his cheeks. Crowley shook his head in disbelief, not quite coming to terms with reality as he touched the left one. He ran his fingers through the feathers with compassion as he did in the past when he would groom them. Crowley had almost smiled when he remembered the warm grin on Aziraphale’s face while he would clean them. He broke out of his comforting memory, flinching after noticing a haunting stare that was settled upon him. 

____

“...Aziraphale?” he whispered softly, golden eyes staring back into the midnight black eyes that had no trace of white or light blue left in them. He had lost count for how long they looked at each other, neither of them spoke or moved. He was sure that neither of them made an effort to breathe. Crowley watched Aziraphale’s gaze gradually drift down to where his hands were holding his wing and gulped when his teeth bared wildly, his wing along with the rest of his body violently shook. 

____

“Angel- '' Crowley attempted to speak before grunting when Aziraphale bashed his wing in a fierce manner against his arm. “Aziraphale, what the fuck?!”

____

The other didn’t reply, he only lifted up his left wing again and went to slam it back down on Crowley, scowling when the demon narrowly moved out of the way. Pain shot up Aziraphale’s aching wing causing him to yelp, he frantically sat up and tried to ignore the agony in his body. 

____

The only thing that was on his frenzied mind was that he needed to escape, not realizing that he was in the bookshop. Aziraphale saw Crowley reach his hand out towards him and growled, bating his wings at him. He pressed himself against the arm of the couch as much as he could, ignoring the pain, to create distance between himself and Crowley.

____

“Angel... I’m not going to hurt you. You know that,” Crowley said as calmly as possible, hands raised with his palms facing out and swallowed. As he focused closely on the shaking figure in front of him, he attempted to move closer which he would come to find out was a grave mistake. Before he could even lay his hand in front of Aziraphale to try to show him that he wasn’t going to harm him, the demon let out a shrill scream and knocked Crowley away with a sole swing from his wing. Aziraphale scrambled off the couch, head turning in different directions before settling his blurry vision on a window. His face turned hopeful and desperate, spreading his massive wings out shakily whilst knocking over items in the shop. 

____

Hissing, Crowley rubbed his arm and froze when he saw Aziraphale trying to fly in the bookshop. He yelled out his name, standing up and stretching his arm out to grab his shoulder. Aziraphale panicked and flapped his wings recklessly, books from the shelves flew off when they were hit by accident. 

____

He only got about a few feet off the ground, mind set on flying through a window before his wings cramped up, making him crash into a bookshelf. 

____

“Shit!” Crowley darted over to him, sweeping the fallen books that landed on Aziraphale off and winced when the quietness of the bookshop was flooded with an ear-piercing shriek. Crowley bit back a yell when nails dug into his wrists, noticing how he was being pushed back as he looked down at Aziraphale with a mournful expression. The two pushed against each other, both struggling immensely. The soft, loving face of his angel was now contorted with rage as he raised the volume of his scream higher than it was previously, making Crowley’s ears ring.

____

In the very last moment after he figured out he wouldn’t be able to calm Aziraphale down, he snapped one of his wrists out of the other’s painful grip and pressed his hand against his forehead. Crowley performed a sleeping miracle, trying his hardest to ignore the ever increasing pitch of Aziraphale’s yelling and let out a relieved sigh when the noise along with the fighting had ceased. 

____

Silence stretched over the shop. Priceless books and other objects were scattered across the floor messily, surrounding a demon holding his used to be angel as he slept, rocking the two of them with a slight rhyme. Crowley had one hand holding the back of Aziraphale’s head, his other arm was wrapped around his waist while he buried his face into the other’s curly hair, refusing to care about the dried blood in it. His body trembled as he held onto him tighter, manifesting his own wings into the physical plane and wrapped them around him. 

____

A choked sob was barely heard.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's nice drinking hot chocolate while writing. 
> 
> Truth be told, I have things planned for this story. Big things. Okay yes I know that sounds a bit ominous but still- 
> 
> Anyways I'll update again next week. 
> 
> Till next time, dears ❤


	4. Consciousness of the Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter fresh out the oven :))

Possible customers stood outside the bookshop, squinting their eyes to try to see inside but to no avail could they. They waited for the shop owner to open the store, not knowing that he wouldn’t open the doors any time soon. 

Sniffling, Crowley slid one of his arms under Aziraphale’s knees and picked him up, paying no attention to the scattered mess that was around him. He tightened his lips into a thin line when he overheard Aziraphale mumble, holding him more securely. Standing up with wobbly legs and making his way to the staircase, he walked them both up to a dusty bedroom room that was left used to store books.

Crowley set Aziraphale down on his stomach again, shoving his hand through his own hair and narrowed his eyes. Wanting to make cleaning up the wounds easier, he miracled off Aziraphale’s layer of clothing that covered his upper section and summoned a bowl of mildly soapy water along with a soft washcloth. He sat next to the sleeping demon on the bed and began cleaning around the wounds along with Aziraphale’s dirty hair with the now wet cloth, heart breaking when he heard strained whimpers come from the other. Whilst continuing to do that, he stared down at Aziraphale’s face, letting their new reality sink in. 

Eventually after he cleaned the wounds with as much care as he could offer, he bandaged them up and put his hand on his forehead. A forlorn frown tugged at Crowley’s lips, his hands trembled as he lowered his hand to cup Aziraphale’s round cheek. He clenched his jaw so tightly that it would have broken his teeth, allowing tears to stream down his face as he gathered up Aziraphale in his arms. 

“You’re a bitch for letting this happen,” he croaked at God, pretending that She would answer him, looking up at the ceiling through fuzzy vision. He hid his face into disheveled hair and laid them both down on their sides. He ultimately let himself break down, sobbing until he fell asleep, never letting the other go throughout the night.

\---

Crowley was rudely woken up by something pushing at his chest and growling. 

“Mn..what? Angel, why is there a dog in the bookshop?” he slurred, opening his eyes groggily to see a pair of pitch black eyes staring back at him, only difference was the fact they looked furious compared to his own. Crowley’s mind put two and two together when he felt another rough shove at his chest, not thinking about the fact he was still tightly holding Aziraphale. “Angel, Aziraphale, please calm down. It’s just me.”

An incoherent sound came from Aziraphale as he clobbered his sore wing against Crowley’s arm, shoving him away once the hold around himself loosen. Jolting himself up, crying out when a twinge of pain ran up his back along with his arms and fell off the side of the bed. He instantly pressed up against a wall, staring at Crowley with enlarged, frantic eyes and covered himself defensively. 

“You ssseriously need to stop doing that,” Crowley hissed as he rubbed his arm, face softening when he looked at the demon cowering against the wall. He cautiously stood up from the bed, holding his hands up with his palms faced out and took slow steps toward Aziraphale. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you remember? C’mon angel, you know me.”

Aziraphale glared at him and glanced at the door from the corner of his eye, gaining a spark of interest in it. He shifted himself to it, trying to be subtle yet Crowley saw him anyways and frowned.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Crowley internally panicked when Aziraphale flinched and waved his hand apologetically. “Ngk. Sorry, sorry. I’m sorry. Just let me...uh.”

While moving carefully as he could, he went over to his used to be angel and sat in front of him. Tense apprehension grew between them for different reasons; Crowley’s face twisted with grief when he saw Aziraphale try to put more distance amongst them.

“What did those bastards do to you?”

No response. 

Crowley bit his tongue lightly and glanced to the side, coming up with a different question. “Do you want tea?”

He bit back a smile after watching the interest sparkle faintly in Aziraphale’s eyes again, taking it as a yes and miracled it up. The tea was in what he thought was Aziraphale’s favorite cup, the angel winged mug. Confusion moved across his face as the other frowned and raised one of his wings up. Crowley pursed his lips and quickly miracled up a different mug, this one with a snake handle. 

“There. See? It’s fine. I know you like doing things by hand but I don’t think I could make it without it tasting like shit,” he joked, trying to get a reply and sighed when he wasn’t granted that. He placed the mug in front of Aziraphale, smiling at him awkwardly and groaned when he saw the obvious distrust in his eyes. Crowley ran his hand down his face, scooting closer to him with the growing desperation clear on his expression.

“Angel, what am I doing wrong? Why do you keep on looking at me like that? Please just..at least _tell _me what I’m doing wrong. Shit, I think I can handle it.”__

____

Aziraphale’s features softened slightly at the quiver in the demon’s voice, opening his mouth before snapping it back shut. Glancing away when Crowley became disheartened and flinching when he felt two hands grasp onto his shoulders with a careful grip. 

____

“Aziraphale, _please _. I want to help but I can’t do anything if you won’t let me.” His chest tightened with overwhelming emotions and gaze boring into Aziraphale’s eyes, not taking notice at how conflicted the other looked. “I know this mess is my fault but fuck. Work with me here, angel. I just want to fix this.”__

______ _ _

“...Crowley?”

______ _ _

Crowley instantly shut up his rambling and watched Aziraphale with a slimmer of relief. His eyes followed the other’s hand as he reached up to shakily touch his own hand.

______ _ _

“Is..” Aziraphale hesitated, his jaw went slack when he felt Crowley grab his hand and run his thumb over his knuckles. Chin quivering at the sensation, trying to savor the gentle touch, worried that it would leave as soon as it came. “Are we really back in the bookshop?”

______ _ _

“Uh. Yeah?”

______ _ _

Realization and anguish hit him, wings drooping as his face went pale. His eyes glistened, grabbing onto Crowley’s hand and pressed it against his forehead. Shoulders shaking as he wept, letting out a breath.

______ _ _

‘I’m- I’m so sorry, my..my dear,” he sobbed, head tilting down to avoid looking at Crowley’s face and shrunk into himself. He could feel Crowley move his hand to intertwine their fingers. “I thought you...that you were Hastur and this was Hell and-” 

______ _ _

“Aziraphale, can I touch you?”

______ _ _

“Oh. Of course.”

______ _ _

Arms wrapped around his torso, allowing himself to be pulled into an embrace and laid his head against Crowley’s shoulder. He heard Crowley huff quietly when he winced from the injuries, a ghost of a smile formed when he felt a head press against his own. 

______ _ _

“Apologize again and I’ll never...nuh. I’ll never feed you with the ducks again. Wait, shit, I fucked it up,” Crowley groaned and held Aziraphale closer after hearing a small chuckle, rapidly blinking his eyes. He refused to cry again. Demons don’t cry. ”Point is that I don’t want to hear you saying sorry for that. You haven’t exactly been kept in paradise.”

______ _ _

“Thank-”

______ _ _

“Don’t.” He sighed, eyebrows creasing and looked down. The previous anxiety that hung over the atmosphere of the room altered into a calm one. The two sat there quietly, not making a move to pull away from the hug. In fact, they scooted closer to each other. Crowley begrudgingly broke the silence, running his fingers through Aziraphale’s hair. “Hell said they were going to leave us alone again. About damn time.”

______ _ _

“Were they lying?”

______ _ _

“Not sure. They better not have.”

______ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so winter break ended which means school work. However, I have almost everything prewritten and all I have to do is edit. I really don't want the type of author to update and disappear for like a month or longer. I understand they have their own reasons as to why but I don't want to leave those who are following this story hanging on a cliffhanger for a little bit too long
> 
> Updating once or twice a week is pretty much my current schedule 
> 
> See you later, dears 💗 don't forget to drink that H2O


	5. New Formed Sin

“Crowley, be honest. Do I look...ugly like some of the other demons? Not including you, of course.”

“What? N-”

“Oh dear, do I have a rash on my face like Beelzebub?” Aziraphale pulled his hands away from Crowley to touch his own face, frantically searching if he felt anything strange “Do I have to change my name? What should I call myself? ‘Feathery’? Must I wear an animal on my head? I know you don’t wear one but do I have to? Or worse, do I _look _like an animal?”__

____

Crowley rolled his eyes with a nod and rubbed his thumb gently against Aziraphale’s back. “Yes. In fact you look like a damn aardvark.”

____

He went to snicker until he heard Aziraphale squeak and gasp. 

____

“But I don’t want to be an aardvark! Oh Crowley, my nose must look disturbing!” Aziraphale covered his nose with his hands, shaking his head. He wondered if this was his punishment for asking Crowley if he was still a demon in the past. “Do I have to be called... ’aardvark..y’?”

____

“First of all, angel, that name sounds terrible.” 

____

“Well, you called yourself “Crawly” even though you’re a serpent. Shouldn’t it have been Slitherly or...Slither-in?” 

____

“Shut up, I told you we don’t talk about that time,” Crowley huffed, pulling back a bit to look down at the other’s face and cupped Aziraphale’s cheek. “Anyways. Second of all, you don’t have to change your name. You look about the same. The only thing that changed is your eyes and wings.”

____

Aziraphale winced and leaned his head into the demon’s palm, closing his eyes. He didn't want to think about how he looked now, particularly his eyes. The angels in Heaven would always talk about how hideous demons were. The visual of Crowley looking at him in disgust made his stomach twist. 

____

Apparently Crowley was having none of that and cupped both of Aziraphale’s cheeks, making him look up at him.

____

“Alright, listen to me for once in your life. Your eyes are still perfect as they did before, okay? If it helps at all, I love the color of them,” he said softly, smiling when Aziraphale’s face reddened and stroked the space next to his right eye. 

____

“..thank you.”

____

“Don’t mention it. Now. Can you stand?”

____

Aziraphale blinked and pulled away from Crowley fully. He put his hand against the wall to steady himself as he wobbly stood up, forcing back a wince. He tried to smile at the other with a confirming nod. Crowley scoffed, standing up as well and picked him up, ignoring the protests that came from Aziraphale.

____

“Put me down, you old serpent. I can walk by myself, thank you!”

____

“Yeah right. You can walk as well as a newborn duck.”

____

“Rude.”

____

They continued to bicker about nothing as Crowley walked out the room, summoning a loose shirt for Aziraphale and forgetting about the cup of tea that was left forsaken. A rush of happiness and reassurance ran across Crowley, seeing Aziraphale act as he did before everything occurred. He felt things were going to be okay; sauntering downwards as he went down the stairs and quickly miracled away the mess of the bookshop from earlier. He set Aziraphale down on a chair after his wings tugged away from the physical plane and put his own hands into the pockets of his pants.

____

“You want anything?”

____

Gently rubbing the handle of the chair with nostalgia, Aziraphale nodded and smiled faintly. “Tea, thank you.”

____

“Didn’t I just...wait. Damnit,” Crowley groaned dramatically as he headed back towards the staircase to grab the mug that was left upstairs, forgetting that he could just have miracled it downstairs. 

____

Whilst Crowley was gone, Aziraphale gazed around the bookshop and relished the familiar comfort of it. He grabbed the book he was holding before he got kidnapped. Freezing up at the thought of it, he pressured himself to not think of that now. He ran down his hand on the spine of the book, pursing his lips with a huff when he saw the bent pages and attempted to straighten them out.

____

Crowley held the snake mug in his hands, walking back down and went up behind Aziraphale. With a relaxed smile, he tapped the back of the demon’s shoulder, going to give him the mug. 

____

“Aziraphale, here-”

____

But before he could finish his sentence, a sickening loud crack emitted from Aziraphale’s neck as he snapped his head around in a 180° turn to look back at Crowley. 

____

“Yes, dear? Crowley, why are you screaming?”

____

Crowley screeched at an ungodly pitch, the mug slipping out of his hands as he could've sworn he was on the edge of having a heart attack. Hands waving around frenziedly, he almost started crying. 

____

“Shit, angel! Your neck! Fuckfuckfuck, does it hurt? Show me where. You’re not allowed to discorporate on my watch.” He grabbed onto Aziraphale’s face, accidentally squishing his cheeks together while scanning his twisted neck. “On a scale of one to thirteen, how badly does it hurt?”

____

“Zero. Shouldn’t it be from one to ten? Wait, why are you even panicking?”

____

Crowley stammered a string of incoherent noises, gesturing at Aziraphale’s neck. “Why aren’t you? I’m not the one with a broken neck.”

____

“Broken neck...what in the world are you talking about-” Aziraphale glanced down and saw the back of the chair, slowly connecting the pieces. He gasped and looked back up at Crowley who was cringing. “This is...new, I suppose. But relax, dear boy, I’m fine.”

____

After fixing up the mess and mug with a small miracle, Crowley went in front of Aziraphale so he wouldn’t have to see his head backwards and gave him the cup of tea. A concerned frown shaped on his face as Aziraphale’s hands shook while holding the cup. “Do you need help?”

____

“No, I’m fine,” he grumbled and tried to force his hands to quit shaking, bringing the cup up to his lips. His hands unsteadily gripped the mug and almost dropped it when Aziraphale put more pressure onto them, ignoring the painful growl in his stomach. He huffed, placing the cup back down on a table and held onto the book again. “Never mind, dear. I’m not thirsty anymore.” 

____

Crowley shook his head at that, lips flattening and put his hand over Aziraphale’s. 

____

“Do you want something to eat? Whatever you want.”

____

A spark of something unknown flashed across Aziraphale’s eyes. He nodded and sat up so quickly that it ached the wounds on his back. Although, he didn’t seem to care. The unpleasant pain in his stomach grew more; he didn’t notice the buzzing in his head as he leaned forward. 

____

“ _Yes _. I- I mean, yes. Please. Uh. Crowley, there’s some chocolate biscuits in the pantry.”__

______ _ _

“On it.” He went to walk away before Aziraphale grabbed onto his wrist with a firm grip, turning back to look at him confusingly. “Angel?”

______ _ _

“A...and crepes.”

______ _ _

“Alright-”

______ _ _

“Toast also. Could there be butter on it?” Aziraphale asked, bouncing his leg and held onto Crowley’s wrist as tightly as he could without hurting him. “Oh, and if there are doughnuts, that too. I’m sure there’s some leftover sushi as well. Wouldn’t want that to go to waste or spoil. That as well, dear. Please.”

______ _ _

Crowley stared down at Aziraphale with furrowed eyebrows, not saying anything and just nodded slowly. He rubbed his wrist after Aziraphale finally let him go, taking a final gaze at him before going into the kitchen. Once he was able to put everything the other asked for on a large plate, he made his way back to him. He was taken back at how jittery Aziraphale was, practically bouncing in the chair.

______ _ _

“Here, angel.”

______ _ _

Aziraphale snapped his head up, wiggling around and nearly snatched the plate out of Crowley’s hands before forcing himself not to. He smiled tensely at him, taking the plate in a polite manner once it was given to him. “Thank you, my dear boy.” 

______ _ _

Choosing not to wait for Crowley’s reply, he began stuffing his face, paying no attention to the fact there was a fork and continued to eat with his hands. He ate as if he hadn’t touched food in eons, not fussing when crumbs spilled onto his beloved chair. 

______ _ _

“Aziraphale, the food isn’t going anywhere. You might want to slow down a bit.”

______ _ _

Crowley pursed his lips when he barely heard a concealed growl, letting out a breath as Aziraphale nodded stiffly. He grabbed another chair, pulling it in an empty space next to Aziraphale and sat down in it so he could watch him eat but was shocked to find out the other had already finished. 

______ _ _

Almost forgetting to wipe his face, Aziraphale took out a handkerchief and cleaned his face along with his hands, slightly confused as to why his eyes were watery. He sighed happily, hands no longer shaking and placed the plate that had no trace of food left on the table next to him. “Thank you, Crowley. That was scrumptious. And I am a bit thirsty now so...um. Crowley, are you feeling okay?”

______ _ _

The demon had been staring at him with a concerned look, disturbed eyes that were easier to see without his glasses to cover them. He nodded unsurely, putting his hand next to Aziraphale’s. 

______ _ _

“Peachy. What about you?”

______ _ _

“I’m okay, dear. Tickety-boo.”

______ _ _

A muscle in Crowley’s jaw tensed as he grabbed Aziraphale’s hand, focusing on his eyes. He leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together gently and tightened his lips. There was something different in his eyes, other than the color, a glint that Crowley couldn’t figure out. Worry contorted inside him and although, he didn’t notice it yet. 

______ _ _

Aziraphale’s shadow had begun shifting in an abnormal way.

______ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a pleasant day or night!
> 
> See you later, dears ♥


	6. Comfort between Hearts

Rubbing his thumb over Aziraphale’s knuckles in a continuous motion, Crowley pulled away from him and sat back in his chair. He couldn’t help but smile when his hand was squeezed tenderly, closing his eyes with a tired sigh. His mind was about to drift off until he heard a small yelp. He snapped his eyelids open in a flash and looked over to his side.

Aziraphale was sitting up stiffly, gazing down with the discomfort apparent on his features. He blinked when he felt the grip tighten on his hand, turning to look at Crowley and almost recoiled at the concern on the demon’s face. 

“Oh sorry, dear. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t.” Crowley frowned at Aziraphale’s poor attempt at a smile, biting the inside of his lip as he glanced at the other’s back. He shook his head, standing up to Aziraphale’s confusion. “Okay look. I tried to heal you earlier and that didn’t work. There’s probably some type of seal they put on you or some bullshit like that. How about you go to sleep so those wounds can heal, yeah?”

“Crowley, you know I don’t sleep. Angels don’t-” Aziraphale bit his tongue, grimacing and glanced at a random spot of the bookshop. He bashed himself internally, the thought of calling himself a demon sickened him to his core. A reassuring squeeze nearly distracted him from his thoughts. “What...what I meant to say was that I’ve never slept before and there’s other things I could be doing instead.”

“Wot. What ‘other things’ could you do? You’re hurt and there is no way in hell I’m letting you do whatever you plan on doing. Knowing you, you would try to go feed those ducks,” Crowley scoffed, shutting Aziraphale down before he could get a chance to protest. “C’mon, you stubborn bastard. Don’t you want to get better?”

“Well...yes.”

“Exactly.”

He stretched his arms before picking up Aziraphale, heading to the stairs with the guilt of what he firmly believed was a selfish reason he wanted the other to sleep. Feeling remorse swirl in his heart, he sucked his teeth and went into the dusty bedroom. He laid the demon down on the bed, taking off his own jacket and sat down on the corner of the bed to throw his jacket somewhere. 

“Crowley?”

“Hm?”

Shifting a bit to try to get comfortable, Aziraphale changed his cherished ragged pants into a pair of pajama bottoms and laid his head against a pillow. He let out a breath, burying his cheek against the squishy pillow more, gazing up at Crowley. “How am I supposed to do this?”

“Easy. Close your eyes and just fall asleep.”

“Yes I understand that first part but 𝘩𝘰𝘸 do I fall asleep?”

“Well you...uh.” Crowley pursed his lips as he took off his shoes. Sleeping had always come naturally to him, never once had he really had to think about it. “You just.. don’t think. Close your eyes and don’t think. See? Easy.”

Aziraphale gave Crowley a look, listening to him anyways and letting his eyelids shut. He could feel the open space next to him sink down and stopped himself from opening his eyes again when an arm slung around him.

“Crowley, I don’t think this is the way how you’re supposed to sleep. But I know you’re the expert on this. Oh, I heard dreams are quite a lovely experience. Are they? Also, dear, why haven’t I fallen asleep yet? Am I doing this right?”

“No.”

“What am I doing wrong?”

Crowley bit back a snort, laying down on his side and started to play with curly hair that was still a shade of white much to his relief. To his surprise, however, there were strands of hair that were colored stormy grey. “You keep talking. Last time I checked, sleeping doesn’t have this much talking.”

He watched Aziraphale huff and shift closer to him. While maintaining a constant gentle speed as he caressed his hair, he pulled out his phone to waste time and to avoid guilt. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings until he heard a snore come from below him.

“Angel?” Crowley asked, not expecting an answer and a corner of his mouth lifted when he only got another snore as a reply. Putting his phone away, he wrapped his arms around Aziraphale and placed his chin on top of his head. Though he was trying to push it away, he couldn’t help but feel selfish for wanting the other to sleep. He was tired of seeing his fallen angel suffering; he would rather sleep than deal with their issues so that was exactly what he was going to do. Yawning again, he went to a dreamless sleep.

\--

Crowley frowned when he felt something wince against him, tightening his grip subconsciously and buried his face deeper into frizzy curly hair. 

“Crowley..”

“Go back to sleep, angel.”

Aziraphale kept one eye closed as his cheek squished against Crowley’s shoulder, glancing up at him sleepily with a yawn.

“Dear, we should get up. The shop.”

A hand was pressed against his forehead softly, eye drooping close and fell out again. Crowley sighed, reminding himself that this was the better option as he went back to sleep as well. Not having to deal with any pain or worries. This was for the best.

\--

The sun rose again in the morning after another day passed, the rays from the sun shone through a dull window, shining onto Aziraphale’s eyelids. He furrowed his eyebrows, stirring awake and began to shift around against the arms that were around him. Once again, a hand was planted on his hand, seemingly out of impulsion. 

“Crowley,” he yawned, putting his hand on the other’s wrist to lazily push it off only to open his eyes hastily when he started to feel fatigue. “Dear, really now. Enough of that, I’m not going back to sleep now and it’s about time we get up.”

A wince came from Crowley, letting his hand be pushed away and propped up on his elbow with a frown. “But you should. The injuries still hurt, right? It’s just better if we go back to bed.”

“Yes but that’s not the point. It’s been what? Two days? We’ve slept long enough. Besides, having constant dreams about bugs is getting strange for me.” Aziraphale stubbornly broke out of the other’s hold, sitting up while fighting back the urge to grimace. He ignored Crowley’s frustrated huff, feeling the space beside him shift. 

“It is the point. We should just wait until everything’s better.”

After grabbing Crowley’s hand, Aziraphale shook his head defiantly as his forehead creased. He squeezed his hand, lips pressing against each other into a firm line. Not understanding the true reason Crowley wanted to stay asleep, he could still vaguely see that the other was desperate.

“We can’t just sleep away our problems, Crowley.”

“Why not?”

Aziraphale just scoffed in response, turning away to quickly stand up from the bed and squeaked when his back pulsed in pain. Sighing in relief when he was picked up, mumbling a thanks and held onto narrow shoulders.

“Knew we should’ve gone back to bed,” Crowley grumbled, going downstairs with the demon in his arms even if he could walk and sitting him down on a cushioned couch. They went on to do their own separate things; Aziraphale opened a randomly chosen book to read while Crowley stood somewhere, doing extreme snake-like yoga to relax his nerves. 

Once Aziraphale recognized that he wasn’t really reading, he looked over at Crowley who was minding his businesses and slowly opened his mouth to talk with the hesitation clear in his voice.

“Dear?”

“Yeah?”

“When..well, when you...fell,” he started, closing the book in his lap to fidget with his fingers while he built up courage to ask a personal question that he never planned on asking before. “Did...were you hurt in any way by any other demons..? You weren’t, right?”

Crowley’s eyes widened at the question, standing up from the floor as he turned his head to gaze over at the demon on the couch. He didn’t reply for a moment much to Aziraphale’s growing worry until one word came out of his mouth.

“What?”

“Ah- uh never mind, my dear boy! It was nothing. I apologize, I shouldn’t have-”

“No. No, I wasn’t.” 

Crowley went over to the couch, sitting beside him and leaned one of his elbows against the head of the couch. He scowled at the vivid memory, shakily sighing. The Adam's apple in his neck bobbed as he swallowed. “When I fell- ngk. Sauntered vaguely downwards. Yeah, it hurt like a bitch but no one attacked me. My wings were lit. Lit on fire... I mean.”

While Aziraphale listened, he laid his head on Crowley’s shoulder and held his hand to provide a bit of comfort. Crowley returned the action by resting his head against the other’s and continued. “Took I don’t know how long for them to stop burning.”

“...I’m so sorry, dear.”

Crowley shook his head at that, face contorting and closed his right eye when hair started tickling it. “It’s fine. They grew back, didn’t they? Aziraphale, you still haven’t told me anything. What did those wankers do to you?”

He felt a flinch against his side.

“Nothing, they didn’t…” Aziraphale paused when his hand was squeezed delicately and let out a breath, shifting around. His eyebrows furrowed when he began recalling the memories and swallowed a lump in his throat, avoiding Crowley’s gaze as if his life depended on it. “I’ll spare you some of the...details. T-they took out my old wings and forced these newer ones to come out. I don’t know how long I was actually down there. It was like time went by slower somehow?”

“That’s it, I’m going to kill ‘em next time I sssee them,'' Crowley hissed and frowned when Aziraphale pulled away to cup his cheek, giving him a disapproving look. “Don’t look at me like that, they deserve it.”

“Crowley, promise me you won’t go back to Hell to do anything.”

“But they-”

“Crowley.”

The demon scoffed and begrudgingly nodded after Aziraphale pouted at him. Knowing that usually any argument they have over a demand would be instantly stopped by his adorably treacherous pout. “Fine, fine.”

He forced back an eye roll when Aziraphale lightly beamed, pulling him closer and squeezed his hand again. The two of them sat there in comfort, almost like how they did before in the past. A smile tugged on Crowley’s lips and lifted his head up to look down at Aziraphale.

“Might I tempt you into going on a walk with me?” 

“Temptation accomplished.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers, heed this minor warning. Things will start to become more serious and 'dark' (Idrk if that's the proper word to use or not but I'm using it for rn-) once chapter 8 occurs. If I have some spare time, I'll post again on Saturday 
> 
> That's all~
> 
> Till next time, dears ❦ stay magical


	7. A Hellish Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well my original plan was to post tomorrow and I said that too but I had some spare time. So why not post today? Here it is :)

Even though Aziraphale knows in the back of his mind he’s a demon, despite not wanting to come to terms with it, he didn’t see the reason why he should wear darker clothing. He miracled back on his old, well kept clothing as if they were never torn up. Going to check his reflection in a mirror, he froze and decided against it. He wasn’t ready yet.

“Shall we go now, Crowley?”

“Nah. Let’s go later,” Crowley joked, holding out his elbow for Aziraphale to take which he gladly did as they went to go out the door. He put his glasses back on as he glanced down at the other, sucking in a sharp breath and stopped abruptly.

“Dear, what’s wrong?” Aziraphale furrowed his eyebrows at how the demon was looking at him, bowing his head slightly from the self-consciousness growing.

“Your eyes.”

“My what- oh.”

“It’s...it’s alright. Here.” Crowley summoned another pair of his darkened glasses with a snap and put them on Aziraphale’s face with a single slide, smiling faintly at him. “There. Hey, now we match.”

Aziraphale wrinkled his nose for a moment and adjusted the glasses to his liking, smiling at him as a form of appreciation. He held onto his elbow again with a faint sigh whilst they walked outside. 

\--

The sun was gleaming bright as usual, a cool breeze brushed through people’s hair as they walked in the open. Two demons strolled together, talking to each other without much care of what was going on around them. They appeared to be in their own world, momentarily forgetting about previous events.

“No, wrong. You’re still saying it wrong.”

“I most certainly am not!”

“It’s 𝘸𝘢𝘩𝘰𝘰. You’re saying bloody ‘wa-hee’.”

“Is it not the same thing?”

“Does it sound like the same thing?” Crowley snickered when he felt an elbow drive into his side in a careful manner playfully and let out a content sigh. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Aziraphale fussing with his bowtie and adjusting it every few seconds. “Angel, what’s wrong?”

Aziraphale grimaced, fussing with his bowtie more as his hand began to sweat. A restlessness was twisting inside him, eyes glancing around in multiple places. “Ah, uh nothing, dear. Let’s just focus back on our stroll.”

“Remember how I said you’re a terrible liar?”

“Crowley!”

“Sorry, sorry. But seriously.” Crowley led them over to an open space underneath a tree and put one of his hands into his jean pockets while lowering his glasses down a bit with his free hand. “What’s wrong?”

The demon fidgeted with his hands and shook his head with a shrug. “I..I don’t know? Oh dear, I’m not sure why but I can't stop fidgeting. It’s a bother but I feel rather restless.”

Crowley pursed his lips, watching him do a motion with his fingers that roughly resembled a snap. He eventually connected the pieces, grimacing and fake coughed. 

“Right. Listen, I know what’s wrong.”

“Go on then.”

He took his hand out of his pocket before putting it back in. “Er. Okay, it’s time for something called ‘Demoning 101.’ Ready? Yes? Good. All you have to do is...be an inconvenience for someone. You’re a tough ange- dem- 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 so you’ll do fine.”

“So be...evil?”

“What? No! Well yes but no. Just do something small.”

“Small.” Aziraphale blinked and shifted his gaze around, until settling it on a man who was yelling on his phone. The pedestrian was insulting someone over the phone, not paying attention to who heard him. Aziraphale’s mouth set into a hard line, staring at him as he yelled another curse loudly and stormed off. The demon focused his mind and caused the man to step in a piece of gum. As the stranger fumed with his wrath increasing, Aziraphale grinned brightly and looked at Crowley. 

“Jolly good! How did I do?”

“You did great.” Crowley nodded with a smile, offering his elbow again but furrowed his eyebrows a bit when Aziraphale kept his head faced towards the passerby silently. His fingers were twitching and his jaw stiffened, he stood there as if glued to the spot. “Aziraphale?”

“Huh?” He snapped out of his trance-like state to rub his eyes, shaking his head slightly and turned over to face Crowley. “Yes, dear?”

“You alright?”

“Tickety-boo.” Aziraphale linked his arm with Crowley’s, tensing the side of his jaw again as he glanced to the side. “My dear boy, would it be too much trouble if we go back to the bookshop now? I loved our walk but I can make us tea or cocoa.”

“Course, angel.”

A twitch came from Aziraphale’s mouth at the nickname but he smiled anyways. Crowley took a step closer to him and watched an owl hunt a rat from the corner of his eye despite it being the afternoon. The two headed back to the bookshop, enjoying each other’s presence. They prattled about unrelated topics from how scolding plants is the best gardening technique to ducks. Eventually, they stood in front of the bookshop, unknown to the looming threat that was lurking subtly. 

“I still say wine is better than tea.”

“I humbly respect your wrong opinion,” Aziraphale teased lightly as he opened the door, walking through with Crowley trailing behind him. He was about to offer wine to his demon until getting cut off.

“Aziraphale, what is that?”

“What is what, dear?”

Aziraphale’s gaze followed Crowley’s hand as he gestured towards a desk, a pocket-sized piece of ragged paper was thrown on it. A frown hardened his face as he walked to it, picking it up to read it. He slowly deciphered the chicken scratch handwriting while Crowley walked up from behind him, slinging his arm over his shoulders and pressed their cheeks together.

“So what is it? Some letter from a blasted customer? Don’t leave me in suspense, angel.”

“It’s from Hell.”

The temperature in the bookstore dropped, a silence stretched over as the news settled in gradually. Crowley’s face fell instantly, slipping his arm off of Aziraphale’s shoulders and ripped off his glasses. 

“What- oh ha. Nice joke there, Aziraphale. Almost got me-”

“Crowley.” His frown deepened as he handed Crowley the paper while taking his own glasses off. He put his hands on his forehead after putting the sunglasses on the table. Crowley crumbled the note up, throwing it in the trash as a glare formed on his face while turning his head back to Aziraphale.

“You mean to tell me those bastardsss want you to go back to Hell for some blasted evaluation?!”

“That’s what it says, dear boy.”

“What the fuck! Actually, y’know what? No. Screw them, you’re not going.”

Aziraphale gaped, looking at Crowley with disbelief and lowered his hands from his face. “I can’t just not go!”

“Why not? It’ll be fine. We can just...stay up here. Have a couple of drinks, eat and forget about our problems. Sounds great, yes?”

“Crowley, they’ll come up and force me to go downstairs.” He rubbed his temples, stomach nauseated and chose to stop breathing. Feeling the sickening dread tense his chest, he sighed heavily. “I don’t have a choice and I really don’t want to see what they’ll do to us if I don’t listen. It’ll be okay. Perhaps it’s just some paperwork.”

“Some paperwork? Fine. Then I’m coming with you.”

“Dear, it said to come alone.”

Crowley scoffed, putting back on his glasses again as he went over to Aziraphale’s side, taking his wrist protectively. “I do what I want. What are they going to do? They think I’m immune to holy water. They won’t do anything to me. Wankers.”

“Okay, okay,” Aziraphale nodded reluctantly, already knowing it was a losing argument and took a step closer towards him. “Let’s just...get this over and done with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, Aziraphale and Crowley being mostly happy together and in general. I sure do hope nothing happens to that or something.
> 
> I'll post again maybe on this upcoming Monday since I don't have to go to school on that day or some other time next week as usual. 
> 
> See you next time, dears ❧


	8. The Rat and Owl Waltz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did someone say violence and action? 
> 
> Real quick, I had to create a demon character because I couldn't use Hastur or Beelzebub for story reasonings. Now that that's out of the way, let's get onto the chapter

The unpleasant odor of sulfur filled their senses as they entered the Hellish place; Aziraphale’s expression saddened after he read a poster that said “You don’t matter” that was poorly taped to the rotting wall. Crowley caught it and told him that the poster was just lying.

Holding hand in hand, the two went through the dark only to encounter demons that jeered and mocked them as they went by. Crowley’s grasp tightened on Aziraphale’s hand, keeping him close whilst continuing on their way. To his relief, no one attacked them despite getting a shove every now and again but he couldn’t shake off the anxiety that was nagging in the back of his head. They were stopped by a short sized demon that had bat wing shaped ears after they tried to go down a hall.

“Wrong way.” Her voice was raspy and she pointed sharply at an entrance to the right, long fingernails broken with dirt underneath. Her full, cracked lips curved up into a twisted smile against dark skin.

“Thank you,” Aziraphale said, paying no attention to Crowley’s untrusting look as he led them in the right direction. They pushed past taunting demons who excitedly yelled when they saw Aziraphale; Crowley scowled at that and sucked his teeth. After the two of them had finally made it to the front of an entrance, unruly hands grabbed at Crowley and forced him to let go of Aziraphale.

“The hell?! Let go of me! Fucking shit- Angel!” 

“That’s a stupid pet name for a demon,” someone in the crowd sneered as they held Crowley in place when he tried to run back to his partner.

“Crowley!” Aziraphale tried to reach for him, only to be propelled back from the entrance and into a darkened arena-like room. A force prevented him from going into the crowd; his heart couldn’t stop beating rapidly as his head snapped in different directions. He pressed himself against the glass border, staring at Crowley who did the same.

“Took you long enough to come. We don’t have all eternity,” Beelzebub sighed, sitting on a throne that was similar to zir original one but smaller. Hastur was standing to their left with Dagon to their right. Zir eyes locked onto the undoubtedly nervous demon in the corner of the room, keeping a blank expression plastered on zir face to hide the increasing interest ze had. 

Hastur smirked after Beelzebub waved a signal at him, stalking over to Aziraphale and grabbed the back of his shirt collar. Forcing him away from the wall as he dragged him to the center of the room and rolled his eyes when he heard him demanding to be released.

“Shaddup,” he scoffed, picking him up with ease to throw him down on the floor which made most of the demons laugh as they watched with an unblinking close eye. The duke snorted, shaking his head as he went back to Beelzebub’s side. “Soft bastard won’t last a second.”

“Beelzebub!” Crowley yelled, glaring daggers at the prince and spoke through gritted teeth. “You fucking said we were going to be left alone! What the hell is going on?!”

Beelzebub raised an eyebrow, shifting their gaze to Crowley for a moment. “I agreed that you could have him back and that you both could leave. I never said Hell was going to leave him alone and you came down with him on your own terms. I never lied. Now, bring out the other opponent. Everyone wantszz this to get started already.”

A low squeak from a door resonated, out came the demon with whiskers who was swinging a chain that had a hook at the end. Aziraphale froze, sitting there on his knees as the demon that resembled a rat walked in front of him, smiling down at him.

“Remember me, angel face?”

Everything in Aziraphale’s being ran cold, he couldn’t think nor move. His fingers trembled as if they had a mind of their own, horrid memories flooded back while he stared at the demon’s foul angular face. Shaking his head loosely as he could feel his wings itching to tear out. 

“Y...”

“Good, you remember. Would’ve hurt my feelings if you didn’t.”

Crowley stared at Aziraphale’s face and glared at the rat demon afterwards, hissing quietly at them. The crowd he was standing in only seemed to grow more feisty, shouting for the match to start already causing Crowley’s face to shift into realization. 

“It’szz about time.” Beelzebub sat up fully, lifting one of their hands forward as a hardly detectable smile tugged at their lips. “Demon Aziraphale, for your evaluation, you muszzt prove how useful you’ll be while fighting for Hell when the day of the war against Heaven comes. Lose this and you’ll be casted down into the lower levelszz of Hell. Demon Rune will be your opponent for today.”

A spark of glee crossed Rune’s narrowed eyes as they watched Aziraphale’s body shrink up; the audience hollered with excitement. 

“The fight will begin in…”

Just when Aziraphale was about to take a glance at Crowley, a chain was hurled towards him, wrapping around his upper arm. He cried out when it dug into old injuries and gripped onto it to pull it off till he was pulled to his feet forcefully and to his opponent. 

“They didn’t say it started yet, you rat piece of shit!” Crowley shouted from the cheering viewers, pressing himself up against the barrier more.

“So?” Rune’s knuckles turned white from their tight hold on the chain and let one of their hands go when Aziraphale came close enough. They smashed their fist into his cheek, grabbing a handful of his hair to tug his upper body downwards and bashed their knee into his gut.

Aziraphale wheezed, raising his hands up to shove the demon that was attacking ferally and almost sighed in relief when the cold chain around his arm was removed. Before he could get a chance to do anything, an elbow was driven into the side of his forehead causing him to choke out a gasp. Body tumbling to the side, he winced when a foot kicked him away. 

Something in his chest weakly pulsated, his head buzzed as vivid images of Rune helping Hastur torture him rushed into his mind. He groaned, feeling his wings come out without warning while trying to breathe despite the growing burning in his chest. The demon looked up with a small glimmer of hope that he would be able to escape. That hope vanished when a foot was deeply driven in his back, into a healing gash that was caused by Rune formerly. 

“You aren’t giving me much of a fight, you know. You weren’t thinking of running away, right?” Rune teased, scratching at their asymmetrical hair and drove their heel more into the sensitive gash. They rolled their eyes as the echoing sound of Aziraphale’s strained yell flooded the room, gaining no sympathy. Raising an eyebrow, they lifted up their foot and allowed him to scramble away. “ _Come on _, angel face. Everyone has been waiting for this. We haven’t had one of these matches in awhile, don’t cha know.”__

____

The buzzing and pulsing in his body grew stronger, wincing at the pain in his back where Rune’s foot was. He panted, putting one hand over his eye and felt his wings trembling severely. An indescribable urge wanted to erupt. The blaring laughter of the audience drowned his hearing and made him cover his ears, closing his eyes tightly. 

____

Rune shook their head at the curled up demon and swung their chain around before throwing it at his neck. It wrapped around his neck, hook digging into the side of Aziraphale’s neck a bit and jerked him back. Rune clicked their tongue, allowing grey wings to lift them up into the air. They pulled the chain to them, grabbing onto one of Aziraphale’s wings when he attempted to fly away with a crushing grip and drove a finishing punch to his nose. The chain hook was removed once Aziraphale flew back downwards, colliding into a colorless wall. The wall cracked ever so slightly when his back clashed against it. 

____

Hastur burst out laughing after Crowley exclaimed Aziraphale’s name, putting a hand on Beelzebub’s throne to hold himself up, eyes crinkling at the corners as he wheezed. “I knew it! Damn, I should’ve made a bet. Could've won a soul or something.”

____

The Lord of the Flies’ previous faint smile dropped to a frown, leaning back against the throne with the disappointment crossing over their glassy eyes. Zir gaze settled on the figure leaning against the wall, creasing their forehead. 

____

“Aziraphale, do you yield?”

____

He couldn’t answer. Blood dripped onto his hand as he shakily brought his hand up to his broken nose. Aziraphale’s blackened eyes were watering, his body pulsed rhythmically as the compulsion in his chest swelled. The demon tried to steady his mind but to no avail; he could hear mocking taunts come from Rune nonstop. Seeming to black out for a moment until reopening his eyes, he sat up on his knees and turned his head fully back to look at Beelzebub’s general direction with a polite smile. An eye that was similar to his old eye color before his fall opened on the side of his neck. The eye looked around in an uncanny way before settling on Rune, pupil shrinking. 

____

“Terribly sorry but no.” His voice sounded relatively normal, except for a deeper humming voice that was interlaced into it. The laughter that surrounded the room had gradually died; Beelzebub’s bland smile returned as ze placed their elbow on the arm of the throne. Wings that were dropped onto the floor, rose up and slammed down as they raised the owl demon up with his hands clasped together.

____

Rune shielded their eyes with their hand when a strong breeze hit them. Once they uncovered them, the only thing that was in view was a pair of smiling eyes shining with a false kindness. The demon winced as well manicured nails roughly dug into their face, threatening to break the skin and a finger brushed over one of their open eyes. Their head was tilted back a bit, forced to look up. Time felt slowed despite no one causing it to.

____

“Sorry, dear, about not giving you a proper fight before. I’ll do better.” His face was uncomfortably close to Rune’s to the point where their noses almost touched. Crowley frowned while pursing his lips slightly, feeling a small twinge of unwanted jealousy and crossed his arms. His frown turned shocked when Aziraphale plunged his thumbs into Rune’s eye sockets, flying away once they were distracted. 

____

“Shit!” The rat demon dropped the chain to rub their eyes furiously, blinking until their blurry vision turned clear again and froze when Aziraphale wasn’t in view anymore. They looked around for him with the rage clear on their features, cursing when the chain was missing. “Cheating asshole. Where is he?!”

____

Crowley narrowed his eyes, leaning his head forward to search for the missing demon and mouth dropping after he spotted him. Aziraphale was perched on the still opened door Rune came out of, staring down at them silently whilst swinging the chain around. He leaned his arm back and threw it at them with no coordination, almost as if he wasn’t planning on hitting them at all.

____

Rune heard rattling come from behind, jumping out of the way and looked down at the hook. They growled, turning around only to grunt when a hand grabbed at their face, forcing them to step backwards. The demon’s head was jerked forward and snapped to the side after a fist collided into their hollow cheek. By the time they reached their hand out to grab some part of Aziraphale’s body, he was out of sight again. The growing nervousness was plain on their expression; Rune would wince each time they were attacked from behind or rammed to the side by heavy wings. A chuckle resonated somewhere.

____

“Didn’t you say I wasn’t giving you much of a fight? I thought you would've been more happy.”

____

The demons including the duke were quiet when Rune widened their eyes frantically as a subtle, noiseless gush of wind came behind. Soft fingers brushing against their face as they went to grab them mercilessly. Head shaking, they shifted down into a large grey rat, scurrying off in a random direction. As soon as they caught sight of a small crack in the decaying walls, the short screech from a greater sooty owl made the rat’s heart stop. Sharp talons grabbed onto their body, lifting them up while wings flapped in the corners of their vision. 

____

Squirming in his grip, Rune squeaked when the talons tightened and made themselves shift out of the rat form. A startled twitter came from above, wings shifted back into hands that gripped harshly onto their shoulders. Rune was turned around to face Aziraphale and yelped when their neck was grasped tightly with one hand, bone white eyes staring back into beaming ones. The two demons plummeted downwards, forcing Rune slam head first into the ground. 

____

Everyone who was watching was stunned silent, any sign of previous excitement in the crowd had diminished. Hastur opened and closed his mouth whilst Beelzebub summoned a shiny red apple that had a large moth sitting on it in their right hand, appearing pleased. 

____

“Rune, do you yield?”

____

“N-” Rune was about to decline until choking when a thumb pressed harder against their throat, quickly nodding, pushing away any sort of pride they had left. “Y-yes. Fucking yes. I’m done, I yield.”

____

The pressure from their neck was lifted after Aziraphale flew off of them. Multiple eyes stared at him as he landed onto the ground, sitting as if nothing ever happened. Beelzebub’s cold laced smile stayed put, standing up. Zir footsteps sounded throughout the dimed room while ze walked to Aziraphale, dropping the apple into his hand from his backside. Flies swarmed and buzzed around them, both of the demon’s eyes had a faint glow to them.

____

“Aziraphale iszz the winner of this match.”

____

Crowley’s face was twisted with mixed emotions. He along with the other watchers observed the demon who bit into the apple, not minding juice dribbled from his mouth along with the blood from his nose. The owlet moth crawled from the apple and up to his face, covering his right eye with its wings.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Say I don't think Aziraphale's doing ok, I think that might be just me but idk
> 
> Ah so school is getting crazier with work which is dumb but I will make sure to post again one more time later this week.
> 
> Till next time, dears ❥


	9. Separation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just hear someone say angst?
> 
> Small note: I noticed that for Dagon that most people use she/her pronouns but in the script, apparently Dagon is addressed with he/him according to the wiki. I'll just use both. Also Aziraphale has an old fashion Nokia phone in this-

The low sound of crunching was the only thing that was heard in the large grey room, juice that mixed with blood trickled down from thin lips whilst a barely audible, distorted humming came from the sitting figure. 

Rune stood up with shaky legs, flinching at the sharp pain at the back of their head and recoiled when black eyes settled on them with a polite grin. 

“Would you like to have another match?” Aziraphale asked as the deep voice that was laced with his normal one hummed slightly. The moth crawled down, resting on his left cheek as a teardrop ran down despite him not feeling unhappy. He tilted his head to the side when Rune hissed at him and ran off through the entrance they came from. His wings curled around himself once Beelzebub went back to zir throne and continued to eat the apple.

“That was bullshit,” Hastur grumbled and crossed his arm tensely, turning away as Beelzebub signaled at Dagon who snapped her fingers on command. The glass-like forcefield vanished with little to no effort.

Crowley pushed away a few demons out of his way to through the now open entrance, head tilted down towards Aziraphale and hesitantly stopped walking.

Aziraphale took one last bite out the apple, seeing Crowley at the corner of his sight and turned to look up at him. His lazily half closed eyes shot open, mouth tensing and tremulously looked down at his hand to gaze at the apple core. Startled, he threw it away and wrapped his wings around himself more after noticing everyone staring at him. Nausea hit his core, putting his hands over his mouth and stared at his shoes.

“Alright, you had your fun. We’re leaving,” Crowley spat at Beelzebub and ran to Aziraphale, putting his arm around him. He glared at the prince who just snapped zir fingers, feeling a head press against his shoulder and took them both back to the bookshop. 

\---

It was cold in the store.

Aziraphale kept his head down as he held his hands together tightly after he healed his broken nose. The moth that was similar to the one he saw in his dreams refused to leave his face. Crowley took off his glasses, going in front of him and bit the inside of his cheek.

“Aziraphale-”

“I think your plants need tending to, dear.”

“No they...” Crowley trailed off, mouth tightening in a thin line while he watched Aziraphale’s hands shake from how firmly he had them together. Reluctantly nodding, he stepped closer to him and pressed his forehead against the other’s, putting his hands over trembling ones. “Actually they do. Need to check if any of them are slacking. But call me if you need anything, ang- Aziraphale.”

“Thank you, Crowley.” A corner of Aziraphale’s tugged up when they squeezed each other’s hands after interlocking fingers. Their hands lingered for a bit before pulling away. Crowley put on his glasses, glancing back at Aziraphale before leaving. 

He was alone now.

A rumbling came from his tight stomach. Aziraphale held his stomach and did his best to ignore it. Lips trembling, he began chewing on the bottom lip and scratched his ear when he heard a buzzing noise that reminded him of a fly. He shook his head with a huff, his feet stumbled about as he walked through the multiple dusty shelves in the bookshop. The ticking from a grandfather clock along with the constant growling from his gut started to overwhelm him. Aziraphale ran his hand across the spine of books, a forlorn look crossed his face as he continued searching for a particular book. The moth crawled from his face to his shoulder when he tried to swipe it away.

“There must be a way to...to reverse this,” he muttered to himself, grabbing a book at random and scanning over the summary. With a clenched jaw, he tossed the book elsewhere and went back to hunting for a book that would tell him how to somehow reverse the effects of falling. Aziraphale’s wings were still out in the open, dragging on the used floor as he rummaged through the bookstore, eyes beginning to open all around his body.

Soon after a while, an old book that was held in a rigid grip was thrown at a Victorian mirror. It shattered on impact, a few pieces fell to the ground as Aziraphale stared at his reflection on a broken piece. Ever since his fall, he had never stopped to see what he looked like. Clothes and hair disheveled, multiple red rimmed eyes covering his body and primary eyes that looked similar to the duke of Hell’s ones. To himself, he looked horrifying. His chin trembled, moving away from the offending glass and went to grab his Nokia phone. A ghost of a hand grabbed his wrist and stopped him from making the call. A pair of eyes sprouted on the back of his wrist.

Quit being a nuisance, he thought to himself as his hand flinched away from the phone and bit his bottom lip with a side glance. Crowley just said that to be polite.

Moving away from the phone after silencing his thoughts momentarily, Aziraphale sat on a chair and wiped his mouth, shaking his head as the acceptance sunk in. He covered his face, a wail escaped from the back of his throat.

\---

“What did I tell all of you?! Leaves wilting is not bloody acceptable!” 

Crowley’s shouts blared across his flat, plants were shaking in absolute terror. They have never seen him this angry at them. He grabbed a small plant by its pot, showing it off to the others. The plant’s leaves weren’t wilting. 

“If you can’t cut it then you have no one else to blame other than yourselves. It’s your fault! It always has been, and you,” he jabbed his finger at the mini trembling plant, teeth baring and narrowed his eyes at it. “Because of you, I have to yell at everyone else! Why do you cause trouble for your friends, huh?”

The plant didn’t answer his question. Mostly because it couldn't. 

“Oh, I see. So you think you can just avoid the consequences by not answering? Stop avoiding your blasted problems!” he hissed in a dangerous, low tone and held onto the pot till his knuckles turned pale. “You fucked up your friend’s life, you know. They gave you their blasted trust and stayed with your sorry ass and this is how you repay them?! By making their life worse? What the fuck is wrong with you. This is all your damn fault! You can’t even be there for them when they need you. You’re pathetic.”

The horrified plant slowly stopped trembling when Crowley loosened his grip on the pot, placing it back down. He took off his dark glasses, putting his hand on his forehead and sighed as his shoulders dropped. All the plants in the room leaned their leaves towards the demon in a subtle way with curiosity.

“Damnit.”

\---

“What’szz your point, Dagon?”

Beelzebub looked up at Dagon from zir desk, leaning zir arms on the overgrown fly and yawned. Dagon placed down a handful of files on the desk and crossed her arms while furrowing his eyebrows.

“My point is that he was a principality. Plus we all saw the match. What if there was more he could do? We could use it for Hell’s advantage.”

The prince frowned, eyes squinting slightly as they picked up the files and put them away in a drawer. “And how exactly would we find that out?”

“Maybe a small shove in the right direction could help. Demons draw on darker emotions, right?”

A faint chuckle came from Beelzebub as ze lowered a hand to the desk with an open palm, allowing the giant fly to crawl onto zir shoulder. They put a loosely clenched fist in front of their mouth, tiny flies creeping all over their face.

“Bring me the archangel Michael.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ew, it smells like drama.
> 
> As usual, I'll update next week. See you all again next time ❤


	10. Change for the Worst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know. I really could have written a light-hearted story with these two bUt oH weLl.

The emptiness in his stomach worsened the longer he stalled eating, it growled and ached terribly. 

Aziraphale never came to realize that he was walking in circles, feet dragging against the floor as his mind was hazy with hunger and other emotions. He frowned down at a book that was deserted, lucky that it wasn’t torn apart like two other unfortunate books. Putting on the glasses Crowley gave him, he decided to deal with the increasing appetite. The moth brushed its feathery antenna against his cheek before flying off of him as he went outside.

The unpleasant sunlight gleamed down on him; he scuffed down the sidewalk, causing people to trip on curbs and get into arguments but made sure they wouldn’t get badly hurt. Thinking about the sushi he was planning to buy, a smile began to grow on his face but his small happy thought was cut off by a stranger shoving him away after he bumped into her by mistake.

“Oh. My apologies, ma'am."

“Well, next time, watch where the hell you’re going,” she spat, giving him a dirty look at him before running off with a phone to her ear. 

With a subdued growl, he made a tree branch almost fall on a car, narrowly missing. He stopped walking, mouth watering and shook his head. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, not wanting sushi anymore. He wanted more than that.

Once he went into his bookshop and closed the curtains, he summoned a couple of plates that had his favorite meals along with a glass that was filled with red liquid. Shoving a chair out of the way, he sat on the floor with his legs crossed, scarfing down on the food as his wings forced themselves out into the physical plane with his gluttony escalating.

Grabbing the glass that was filled with crimson wine, he raised it up to make a toast with no one as the moth flew back onto his upper arm. A spider crawled up his leg and onto his chest as he mumbled a toast. The wine glass was smashed against the floor hectically when a thick liquid that was colored a mixture of gold and black poured out and onto his shaking hand. Or that was what Aziraphale thought he saw. 

\---

The Archangel Michael struggled against the restraints that were chained to her wrists, a demonic miracle prevented her from using one of her own. She sighed with her eyebrows furrowing and held up her chin when the doors to the room she was confined in opened. 

“Demon scum.”

“That’szz a bit rude,” droned Beelzebub, back slouching as three other demons including Hastur who had his usual unnaturally widened grin plastered on his face walked from behind zem. Ze were frowning, staring at the tied down archangel before them. “I just need some information from you.”

“Like what? I won’t tell you anything about Heaven, no matter what you do,” she scoffed, flinching away when Hastur held hellfire in front of her face and stepped back as much as she was allowed to. 

The prince rolled their eyes, straightening their back and moved forward. “I don’t care about that. That’s not what I’m after at the moment. Formal angel Aziraphale. What did Heaven do to him over the yearszz?”

“..what? Why would you even want to know that?”

“Doesn’t matter to you.” Beelzebub gave a gesture to Hastur who gladly held the fire closer to her, eyes narrowing. “I know Heaven is shit, don’t try to hide anything. Just tell me what I want and I’ll let you go. You have my word. Deal?”

Michael was about to refuse until she looked at the hellfire that gradually inched closer to her face, sweating from the heat of the flame and gulped when a lick from the flames almost touched her cheek. She gazed over at the Lord of Flies and nodded.

“Good.”

\---

Crowley hissed at a plant that leaned towards him when his eyes were watering, huffing once it moved back in place. Rubbing his eyes, he headed to his bedroom and grabbed his phone to turn on a timer. He would rather sleep all of this off and hope for the best. Right when he was about to hit the confirmation on the timer, his finger froze as his eyes widened. 

_We can't just sleep away our problems, Crowley _.__

____

Aziraphale’s gentle yet firm voice came into his mind as he thought of the memory and sighed. He put his phone into his pocket, placing his glasses back onto his nose while sauntering out his flat. The demon went into the Bentley and drove to the bookshop as ‘I was born to love you’ began to play on the radio. Speeding down the road, a grin formed on his lips as the bookshop came into view. He stretched his arms after getting out of the car, a wasp flew onto his arm. He brushed it away and walked to the entrance door, pausing.

____

Curtains covered the front windows, the closed sign was there as usual but the darkness of the store seemed to make worry spout in his chest. He grabbed the knob and turned it only to hear an abrupt shout from inside, faintly overhearing the sound of a hiss.

____

“For the last time, we’re _closed! _Please respect the _sign. _”____

Crowley bit his bottom lip and opened the door anyways, stepping inside with caution. He was taken back at how the shop looked like a disaster compared to how tidy and neat it always looked. Books were thrown around, two were torn apart in half and a cushioned chair was knocked over onto its side next to a smashed glass cup. Food crumbs and stains littered the carpet, plates that previously had food were licked clean. His chest tensed at the sight of a shattered mirror. 

__

______ _ _

__

“Aziraphale?” he called out and let out a nervous breath when no answer came. He continued down the shop, stopping in front of Aziraphale’s favorite reading chair with his back turned towards it. He called out his missing partner’s name again, frowning as he was ignored again. “Aziraphale, I know you’re in here. Where are you? Angel, please.”

__

______ _ _

__

A soft trill came from behind causing him to flinch, Crowley sighed in relief when he saw Aziraphale in his owl form, perched on the chair. He casually put his hands into his pockets, smirking at him with a lighthearted snort. Still, the anxious feeling never went away.

__

______ _ _

__

“Damn angel, the shop is a mess. What, did you have a get together without me? You could have invited me, you know.” Crowley attempted to spark their usual banter or at least a conversation but stopped once he noticed that Aziraphale was just staring at him. An underlying fury was in his eyes as he continued to stare at him. Crowley looked sullen and gripped onto the insides of his pockets. “Change back.”

__

______ _ _

__

Aziraphale knew what he was talking about and complied, shifting back to his human appearing form. He looked up at Crowley without lifting his head and kept silent. 

__

______ _ _

__

Crowley wished he could pinch himself and hope this was just a nightmare he was having. The used to be angel who favored keeping himself well kept and had that warm smile Crowley loved was now looking at him with a faint glare. His now scruffy hair seemed slightly longer as the bangs almost fell over his eyes, clothes wrinkled and bowtie missing with two bugs crawling on him. Crowley watched his eye twitch with irritation; he wanted to embrace Aziraphale but the dark, slightly menacing gaze that was focused on him made him decide not to.

__

______ _ _

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter coming soon, of course ❦❦


	11. Deception from Flies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Aziraphale

Concern and unease overflowed the serpent's heart, hoping that his mind was playing tricks on him but acceptance slowly eased in. Crowley shook his head, glowering and pushed his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Aziraphale, what the fuck?”

“What?”

Crowley sputtered out inaudible noises and sharply took out one of his hands to gesture at the mess of the bookshop. “ _That's _‘what.’ Your bookshop is a blasted mess including yourself. This isn’t like you and you know that.”__

____

Aziraphale crossed his arms and took a step back, pursing his lips. There was a low buzzing in his right ear, like a fly. “No it’s not. It's...fine, Crowley.” 

____

“Don’t ssstart with that!” he snapped, moving closer to the other and took off his glasses with a quick movement. “You used to fuss when I left an empty wine bottle on a table, now you left plates and other shit on the floor. You even ripped up your books! You would have probably murdered someone if they did that. What the hell has gotten into you?” 

____

“Nothing!” Aziraphale held his arms tighter, jaw tensing and avoided looking at Crowley as he felt him getting closer with a nervous gulp. “Nothing has gotten into me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not acting differently.”

____

“Bullshit! You told me before that you were ‘tickety-boo’, yeah right,” Crowley continued, feeling the worry shift into temper. He would come to wish that it hadn’t. “Ever sssince your fall, you’ve been acting so bloody weird that it’s worrying. Fucking talk to me; did I do something else to make it worse? It's like I don't even know you anymore. Angel, I swear to someone, you’re acting like a damned demon!”

____

Both entities didn’t move or speak.

____

Aziraphale’s face broke Crowley’s heart and made him want to kick himself. The grief, awareness and hurt contorted his expression as he stared up at him. Crowley held out his hands, going in to touch him.

____

“Angel, shit, I-”

____

“Stop calling me that. It’s true. I don’t act like an angel anymore. I’m not even one...so I-I shouldn’t be called that.” His face fell into fury, stepping away from Crowley and pressing his lips together into a firm line. He headed towards the front door, refusing to take his jumbled emotions out on Crowley. “I’m heading out.”

____

“But Az...you know what? Fine!” Crowley shoved his hands back into his pockets after Aziraphale shouted back “fine” in return, slamming the door shut once he made his wings vanish and placed on his sunglasses. Crowley paced around, hissing to himself and kicked his shoes at the carpet. 

____

\---

____

A huff came from Aziraphale as someone tripped over a curb, crossing his arms whilst storming off in a direction he didn’t know. The buzzing died down. He quickly blinked his eyes, ignoring the urge to go back to the bookshop and mostly back to Crowley. People would stare at him weirdly, seeing larger than normal bugs on him but he paid them no mind. 

____

The sun was slowly covered by clouds as he stomped into an empty area he wasn’t familiar with, a soft breeze blew against his face. Aziraphale felt a chill run up his spine, hugging himself and continued down the grassy field. After passing a tree with brown leaves, he stopped in front of an aconite flower, gazing down at it. He bent down, touching the pedals with a gentle hand. A black cricket jumped onto his finger, biting down on it.

____

“Aziraphale, it’s about time. You always keep me waiting when I want you to show up.”

____

Aziraphale’s heart skipped a beat, assuming he was alone and immediately stood up to turn around. Fear paralyzed him, widen eyes set on the individual before him who was sitting on a tombstone that had an angel that seemed to be weeping. The head of the angelic statue was gradually cracking under the weight of the person. 

____

“Nice. Well. Terrible to see you again,” Beelzebub corrected themselves, peering down at Aziraphale with a voodoo doll that somewhat mirrored a unhappy demon in their hand.

____

\---

____

In the bookstore, Crowley groaned as he fell face down on a couch. He grabbed a pillow and hugged it, pretending it was Aziraphale. 

____

“Dammit all. Probably should’ve worded that differently, fucking hell.” He squeezed the pillow, pulling out his phone to check if he got any calls from the other, sighing when there was none. Pushing himself up with a puff and standing off the sofa. “He’ll come back. Tempt him with a drink, apologize then happy ending. Genius.”

____

Crowley sauntered to the kitchen, grabbing the angel wing cup and attempted to make hot chocolate the ‘human’ way. Once he was finished with that, he added marshmallows in it and took a wine bottle on his way back to the sofa. He placed the mug down on the corner of the table and opened the bottle, beginning to drink it as he waited for Aziraphale's return.

____

\---

____

“W-what do you want, Beelzebub?” Aziraphale asked, putting distance between himself and the prince as his throat tightened. “I already took your evaluation.”

____

“Why are you assuming I want something? We’re friendszz now. Allies. We both live in Hell so we should get along. Wouldn’t you agree?”

____

He scrunched up his face with the confusion visible and opened his mouth to speak, but Beelzebub interrupted him before he could.

____

“Haven’t you noticed how poorly everyone treatszz you? Shouldn’t you be glad that you left Heaven?” A smirk ghosted over their face when Aziraphale winced, wrapping his arm across his chest as they continued. “Alwayszz being looked down on. Getting the jobs that were for lower ranks so the archangels wouldn’t have to do them. It must have been irritating, being treated like shit. Being demoted on top of that. A cherub to a principality. Don’t you miss your heads? Must be lonely without them. By the way, Gabriel was like a brother to you once, waszz he not? What happened? You two seemed close before.”

____

“Please stop,” he muttered with a tense voice, backing up more until he was stopped by Beelzebub with a minor demonic miracle. Water welled in his eyes, sniffling and put his hands together tightly to comfort himself. His finger irritated him as the black cricket bit him again.

____

“The humans haven’t been much better, right? Never liked them. But you know that little argument with Crowley must have been…’dreadful’.” They ignored the shocked look that came from the other demon. Ze held out zir open palm forward, allowing a tiny fly to land on it after flying from Aziraphale’s messy hair. “I know how much you _liked _him. Betraying Heaven for him. It’szz a shame that it isn’t mutual anymore. Not after your fall it isn’t.”__

______ _ _

“...what?”

______ _ _

“Shocking, I know. But it'szz the truth. When you were kept in Hell, I waited for him to show up the day you fell and he didn’t. It took him a long time. I’m sure he was procrastinating coming to get you.”

______ _ _

Aziraphale’s body felt numb as his mouth twitched. “No, you’re lying. Crowley is a good person and I know that for sure.”

______ _ _

“Then what are these?” Beelzebub summoned the fake files that Dagon made for zem and waved it around in their hand before tossing it in front of Aziraphale’s feet. Ze watched him read them and shake his head in disbelief, face paling. “I offered him a choice of letting him have you the day you fell or letting us keep you longer. He chose the latter and left. Took him about a month or two to come back. Or was it more? I forgot. What do the fileszz say again?”

______ _ _

“Stop it!” Aziraphale threw the files away, trying to ram himself out the blocking Beelzebub put up and pressed his back against it. Humming echoed in his head and stopped breathing as despair twisted his face, voice breaking. “Please just stop…”

______ _ _

“I assumed you would have appreciated knowing this. I just find it disappointing that Crowley doesn’t have feelings for you ever since you turned into a demon. He’szz growing tired of you.” Their eyes dulled as they delivered the final blow, leaning forward. 

______ _ _

“He liked you better as an angel.”

______ _ _

A tearing pain shot through Aziraphale’s being as it writhed. His true form began ripping away from his cooperation. The moth that was still on him flew up as his body twitched. Screaming out in agony, one of his wheels hammered against the inside of his back as a burning sensation came from over his right eye. His body couldn’t take it anymore as he collapsed, wings that appeared flapped manically and he reached his hand out towards the Lord of the Flies hopelessly. 

______ _ _

“Pl-please he...help me.”

______ _ _

Beelzebub just brushed the doll’s greyish hair back, eyeing down at the threshing demon and rested their elbow onto their right knee.

______ _ _

“I am helping you.”

______ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have nothing to say for myself for all of this.
> 
> Next chapter will be up soon ♡♡


	12. Macabre Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...don't really know if Anathema knows if Crowley and Aziraphale are an angel (well, uh, before he fell-) and a demon but for plot convivence, she knows :)

Alone, he waited. 

Crowley glanced at a ticking grandfather clock, checking the time and let out a huff. He placed the half drunken wine bottle down with irritation, gasping when the angel wing mug fell off the table and shattered instantly. 

“Shit,” he grumbled, bending down and picked up a cracked piece of the mug. Worry throbbed inside his chest, almost as if Aziraphale was in trouble but pushed it for now as he fixed the cup. He knew everything would be alright.

\---

A distorted voice screamed.

Aziraphale was trying to pull his true form back into his cooperation, demonic essences floating from him and shrieked out in two voices for Crowley to help him the same way he had always done so in the past. 

“He iszzn’t coming back, remember?” Beelzebub said in a causal tone as if they were having a laid back conversation, slouching their back over. “He’sz probably left so he doesn’t have to see you anymore. If I were you, I would do away with this place. Get rid of these annoying humans and memorieszz. But that’s just my input.”

In a chaotic state, he listened zem while the deeper voice of the two murmured something that came out as gibberish. Stirring visuals of everyone he’s known swarmed in his mind. Bugs crawled around and if he had irises, someone else observing the scene before them would have noticed him rolling his eyes into the back of his head.

The prince slowly slid a pin ze summoned into the side of the doll’s head with merciful care, satisfaction glossed over zir eyes as the fly on their head buzzed.

The calm before the storm; both of Aziraphale’s forms joined back together once more, settling still as he raised his hands up towards the sky that was clear since the clouds were gone momentarily. He bared his teeth, tears that were a mixture of white and light blue streamed down his cheeks and performed a miracle. 

Though he loved humanity and living in London, a greater part of him wanted to do away with the city as in an attempt to forget. The smaller part in the back of his mind rang out for him to stop what he was doing but it was drowned by the demonic enhancement Beelzebub executed so he could continue on with his plan. His body shifted after the miracle was complete. 

The first wave began. Abrupt patches of lightning stuck down on the city in unpredictable locations, winds were blowing at an increasing rate as a unforgiving hurricane began forming in the distance unknown to the people currently. 

\---

Glancing outside the window, Crowley noticed how the sky became darker with harsh winds despite it being sunny a few moments ago. A wary frown hardened his face, pulling back out his phone and called Aziraphale. It rang until going to voicemail. He went to stand up until his phone rang, he quickly picked it up without any sort of hesitation.

“Ah, angel- I mean Aziraphale, there you are. Why didn't-”

“Crowley?” 

Any glimmer of hope he had faded away once hearing the voice of Anathema in the receiver. He sighed tiredly, running his hand through his hair and tensed his jaw.

“Anathema? What's wrong?”

“Crowley, what in the world is going on?! The news just said that there’s a hurricane forming. I even saw that there was somehow a major flood threat and there hasn't been a major flood in London since 1928. There's this weird...change in energies that I don’t know how to describe especially since the weather was perfectly fine a few minutes ago. Something bad is happening because this isn’t normal and you know that too.”

“I don’t know, alright? Look, I’m just waiting for Aziraphale to come back home.” His voice had softened when he said that and shook his head quickly once he heard Anathema ask if she should come over. “Fuck no. You stay over there.”

He hung up before she could get a chance to disagree with him, not in the mood for arguing once more. Going through his contacts again, he attempted to call Aziraphale only to be led to another voicemail.

\---

In a bland white office in Heaven, Gabriel read through papers with his back straightened and lifted his head up, hearing footsteps walking towards his desk.

“Uriel. What is it?”

Uriel folded their hands in front of them, looking at Gabriel with slightly narrowed eyes and tightened their lips into a line.

“There’s a slight problem on Earth. We’ve gotten word of an increasing demonic energy at an alarming rate that came out of nowhere. Some of us are...concerned that some demons are planning something.”

“And? Just tell Aziraphale to check it out. He might not be on our side but he’s still an angel technically. He can look. Give him a small scare and he’ll listen if he doesn’t feel like causing more trouble for himself as usual. I don’t want to spare any other angels to go onto Earth for something like that.”

“Aziraphale fell, Gabriel.”

Gabriel blinked as his mouth opened and closed, furrowing his eyebrows. Clearing his throat, he settled down the papers that were in his hand onto his desk. “...right. Right, I know. Never mind that. I’ll go myself.”

With that, the archangel stood from his chair and fixed his purple tie that matched his eyes. He took a few steps forward before teleporting himself down to Earth.

\---

People ran into their houses and other buildings when the storm steadily got worse, blaring sirens went off in the distance. Lightning stuck at different points and objects, rain was threatening to pour at any moment.

Crowley cursed while he repeatedly tried to call his absent demon, putting on his darkened glasses as he hurried out the door to find Aziraphale. A flash of lightning nearly struck him the moment he went outside, flinching. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Anathema driving up to him in a car and frowned. 

“I told you to stay at your home,” he grumbled to her when she got near him. She ignored him, grabbing his wrist and tugged him into the vacant mess of a bookshop. “Anathema, the he-”

“Hush. Now listen to me.” Anathema pushed back on her glasses after cleaning them, seriousness clouded her face as she pulled out an occult book from her dress pocket. “There’s a demonic energy and I know it’s not coming from you.”

“So?”

“So- wait, where is Aziraphale? He’s always with you and I want his help too.”

Crowley shifted around on his feet uncomfortably, hooking his thumbs into his pockets. “I don’t know. That’s why I said I was waiting for him to come home already, blasted. He hasn’t been picking up his damn phone.”

Her shoulders tensed after a pause of silence, inching forward slightly as she looked at Crowley with an indistinctive expression. “Are there any other demons here that you know of?” she noticed the hesitation in the demon’s voice when he declined and slowly continued. “Crowley...Aziraphale is an angel, right?”

“Ngk.” Crowley felt like he was punched in the gut, letting out a harsh breath with a shake of his head. “Not...anymore. What the hell does that have to do with anything anyways? So what if he isn't? That’s not a problem or an issue, alright? He’s still fine, perfect and uh, tickety-boo. It’s not like he changed or something like that.”

Just when Anathema was about to answer, a sudden flare of light blinded and distracted them both. Crowley aimed to turn his head before he froze as a sword was pressed against his neck. The wielder of the sword glared down at him, violet eyes burning with a holy rage.

“Of course it was you. I knew I should have done away with you in Heaven.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be posted on Friday most likely, see you all later ღღ


	13. Executioner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Colossians 3:25
> 
> For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Inside a dull shop, an archangel hovered in front of a demon with his wings colored violet at the tips of each feather. Sword pointed at him, the demon hissed with annoyance dripping from his voice.

“For fucks sake, it’sss not me! I might be a demon but I don’t plan on flooding London or some shit like that. I don’t even know if I could actually do that. I’m a tempter, not a drowner.”

Gabriel blinked, lowering his sword as he landed onto the ground. He gave a look at Crowley, narrowing his eyes with suspicion flickering in them, forehead creasing deeply. “Then who is it?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You’re a demon. Shouldn’t you know things like this? Don’t demons have some sort of a telepathic connection to tell each other evil, unholy things?”

“...what? No!”

“But that’s what they told-”

“Oh for the love of,” Anathema cut in, pushing her way in front of Crowley and Gabriel, a line drew between her brows. “Aziraphale! He’s the only one not here. Crowley, you’ve been waiting for him for how long? You even said he hasn’t been picking up his phone. Unless he’s having a problem then there’s a good chance that he might be causing this.”

Two different emotions crossed the entities' faces; one was skeptical and the other was filled with subdued fear. Crowley shook his head instantly, body going stiff. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Anathema, it’s not him. Look, he’s _just _missing. Not trying to fucking flood London.”__

____

She sighed heavily, crossing his arms over her chest. “Really? Correct me if I’m wrong but weren’t you the one who used to tell me about how much you loved when Aziraphale would pick up his phone almost no matter what? Crowley, think for a second. He’s a demon now, there’s some crazy demonic energy surrounding that storm and on top of that, he’s conveniently missing. Doesn’t that seem off to you at least a little bit? ”

____

Biting at his lower lip as his confidence dwindled, he turned away. “I-I still think it could be someone else. Some other bloody demon.”

____

“I’ve heard enough. Somehow he’s still causing trouble for me even as a demon,” muttered Gabriel, making his sword turn into small chunks of pure light before vanishing as he headed out the front door. 

____

The color went out of Crowley’s face, worried for Aziraphale’s safety as his slit pupils thinned. He slammed the door open, hurrying after Gabriel with Anathema trailing behind him, doing her best to keep up with the rushing demon. Wind blew harshly against their faces whilst they ran through London, heading to the eye of the storm. Crowley reluctantly held onto Anathema’s wrist so she could keep up once he noticed she refused to leave despite the obvious signs that she should have. He squinted his eyes through the hurricane, raindrops hitting his face and eventually slowed down after seeing Gabriel standing idle in front of a tombstone. 

____

“Hey, you smug bastard, what…” His voice trailed off when the person Gabriel was staring at came into view, letting Anathema’s wrist go while she stayed behind him. Breathing quickening, he tensed and moved closer. “Why the fuck are you here, Beelzebub? Are you seriously causssing this?”

____

“Not quite,” Beelzebub droned, casting the demonic doll at Crowley who caught it and placed zir on the back of the statue ze were still sitting on. Ze silently watched Gabriel’s along with Crowley’s face flood with realization, mouth twisting up into a faint smile and yawning when Gabriel stepped forward.

____

“Where is he?”

____

The prince didn’t answer him; they only leaned back and glanced up at the darkened sky. 

____

Gabriel followed their gaze and winced when something knifelike scratched his cheek. He put his hand over the wound, gaping slightly and looked at his hand in shock when he saw small droplets of crimson. He was bleeding. The archangel along with the others watched an owl fly from them and upwards. It shifted back into the demon at fault who had a grin that was much too wide for his cheeks. It seemed strained. The morbid grin dropped to a scowl once he caught sight of Gabriel.

____

“ _What _are you doing here, Gabriel?”__

______ _ _

Crowley’s eyes burned with grief, observing Aziraphale that hovered before all of them. The bigger than normal moth was resting on his forehead, wing covering his left eye to keep it from being seen. A large spider and cricket refused to leave his body, creeping around slothfully. Where his right eye should have been, there was now a black owl shaped wing in its place, miniature blue eyes coated it. All eyes stared down at Gabriel with the fury fuming in them. 

______ _ _

“One of an angel’s jobs is to stop and destroy demons,” Gabriel answered promptly, his mouth set in a hard line and walked forward. “Aziraphale, I am only asking you this once. Stop...whatever this is! It’ll only draw demons here and cause more problems for Heaven. You out of anyone should know that so stop acting this way.”

______ _ _

Aziraphale’s left primary eye widened once the moth moved its wing, clenching his jaw. Wrath spiking as his voice became more distorted with every word he shouted. “ _You _made me fall. You were the one who told me that I was pretty much a fallen angel. Wasn’t this what you wanted?! This is all your and Heaven’s fault! I’m done with taking your orders and looking up to you. Let other demons come. That’s not my concern anymore. Just go back up to Heaven and leave me be. All of you.”__

________ _ _ _ _

The archangel’s features twisted with an unreadable emotion, letting his wings unleash and loosened his tie with rigid fingers. “This usually isn’t in my department but I guess I’ll have to do what needs to be done.”

________ _ _ _ _

Crowley sucked in a sharp breath, going to grab at Gabriel until he was stopped by Beelzebub who shook zir head. Anathema withdrew behind a tree as they watched Aziraphale gradually draw closer to Gabriel with his hands clasped together, wings flapping roughly against the unruly wind.

________ _ _ _ _

Aiming his open palm up to the flying demon, Gabriel gripped his free hand onto his arm to hold it steady. Purple eyes glowing as his mind focused and went to smite Aziraphale, paying no attention to Crowley’s outraged cry. The radiating illumination blinded Crowley’s vision as a ray of light struck down where Aziraphale was. 

________ _ _ _ _

It never hit him. 

________ _ _ _ _

Crowley watched his foot slam onto the now cracked ground when he landed in front of Gabriel, seeing how his pants were rolled up to his knees and his shoes were missing. Hand planted down to keep his balance in his crouched position. Snapping his head up, Aziraphale stood and lit his clenched fist on fire, going in to punch Gabriel’s face recklessly.

________ _ _ _ _

Gabriel’s eyes widened as he leaned back, hardly avoiding the attack. Blocking his face when another fist aimed for his nose and winced when his shin was kicked at. Quickly, he grabbed at Aziraphale’s wrist with an iron grip before he could attack him again. Gabriel positioned a free hand over his opponent's face and prepared another deadly smiting before hesitating. Staring down at the primary watery eye, his expression contorted and subconsciously loosened his grip on the wrist.

________ _ _ _ _

Aziraphale let out a small chuckle, kicking away Gabriel in the gut when he was distracted and lit his hand on fire once more. He threw his fist at Gabriel who retaliated with his own fist which was engulfed with holy light. The overwhelming combination of raw demonic and angelic energies collided once their fists crossed and ended up sending them flying back. 

________ _ _ _ _

Aziraphale yelped when he crashed into a tree, hand stinging and groaned. The archangel grunted as he pushed himself away from the cracked tomb he landed against, getting back onto his feet. His jaw stiffened while Aziraphale started dislodging himself from the tree, allowing his sword to form in his hand and pointed it at the other.

________ _ _ _ _

“Come on, sunshine. Weren’t you the Guardian of the Eastern Gate?” he said with a fake smugness laced into his voice, narrowing his eyes when a low warped growl sounded in front of him and readied his stance once Aziraphale manifested his own sword. They extended their wings to their full extent before charging at each other in the chaotic sky.

________ _ _ _ _

From a distance, it seemed as though two comets were clashing at each other, trying to make the other fall first. The darker sphere desperately turned more aggressive and unpredictable compared to the lighter one.

________ _ _ _ _

Gabriel’s face screwed up as he tried to keep up with Aziraphale’s manic, erratic swings. Grip tightening on the handle, his heartbeat battered inside his head as he attempted to steady his heavy breathing. He ignored the annoyance of how his proper clothes were disorderly while shoving Aziraphale away to get breathing space. He flew away from the other to hastily come up with a new strategy, face paling when a shot of fire barely missed him. Turning his head around slightly, he could see Aziraphale chasing after him and continued to shoot fire at him. Gabriel bit back a yell as the hellish flames brushed against his right wing and faintly heard the noise of a sword clanging behind him. 

________ _ _ _ _

With a sharp turn, he slashed at Aziraphale’s wrist, making him cry out and drop his weapon. Gabriel plummeted his foot into his chest, seeing the torn up expression of Aziraphale as he propelled him down to the Earth, falling towards a lonely grave.

________ _ _ _ _

The archangel lowered down to the grass where he was previously, panting and could still hear his rival’s yell when they were in the sky. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to recuperate, before arms wrapped around his torso with a crushing grip. A heavy weight began to push him backwards.

________ _ _ _ _

Taking sight of the demon who forced a vengeful smile onto his face and grabbed at Gabriel’s wrist, taking the sword from him despite the burning that occurred when his fingers touched the weapon. Gabriel’s face fell, watching Aziraphale with a small sigh and relaxed his lips that were in a tight line.

________ _ _ _ _

His own sword penetrated through his chest.

________ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time ❦❦❦


	14. Second Wave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for slight body horror

“ _I never understood why you liked the sun so much. _”__

_A juvenile archangel crossed their arms over their chest, standing next to a shorter cherub. The cherub was only created to what seemed a few days ago in contrast to the other angel. The archangel wrapped one of their violet tipped wings around them, pulling them closer in a sibling-like manner. A smile tugged at their lips when the cherub’s eagle head began preening their slightly ruffled wing. They glanced down at the cherub who was huffing, gesturing to a sun that shone over soft clouds. ___

“ _Because it looks pretty. _”__

“ _You keep saying that. It's still not as bright as the other stars though. _”__

“ _Well...yes but don't you like the sun? _”__

“ _Of course I do _.”__

_A pause. ___

“ _Can we go see the jellyfish now? _”__

“ _Sure, sunshine.”_

\---

Gabriel grunted as his head thumped against the drenched soil, looking up at Aziraphale’s now faint rueful expression while keeping a weak grip on the handle of the sword. Never once had he been discorporated before. As he left his body to go back into Heaven, his cooperation gradually disappeared including his sword.

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A familiar burning sensation returned, Aziraphale put his pulsing hand over his left eye as he screwed his face up uncomfortably. He hissed as another black owl shaped wing grew where his eye previously was, mirroring the one on the right and multiple baby blue eyes opened. The owlet moth was on his forehead now, sticking its tongue out. Mumbling what sounded like an apology under his breath, he lifted his hands up to the sky. Skin on his left cheek thinned before ripping and showed off quite a bit of his teeth. 

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The second wave hit; heavy rain poured down onto the city, winds blew harshly against trees as sirens in the distance continued to go off. People huddled inside various buildings, making sure to keep everyone they knew along with strangers as safe as possible while trying to come up with plans for evacuation. They would have time to leave before London was eventually ruined. 

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A low crack came from the weakened head of the angelic statue and finally broke under Beelzebub’s weight, falling as ze landed on zir feet. Zir shoulders slumped, observing Aziraphale who snapped his fingers and flew into thick fog that was summoned. 

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Gluttony and wrath, interesting. He might have a statuszz of a duke or a prince. Below me, obviously,” said Beelzebub carelessly, looking over at Crowley who was weakly shaking his head with a twisted mouth. “You should reconsider saying no to my offer on becoming a duke. Didn’t you both make a big deal about staying together?”

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Feeling a heaviness on his shoulders, Crowley’s face contorted as he rubbed his thumb against the doll’s cheek area which was still in his hand. He pressed his lips together, narrowing his hate filled eyes at the prince that was standing next to him. “Why the hell did you do thisss? Wait actually no. Why are you even still here?”

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“I want to see what happens.”

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The demon scoffed, resisting the urge to throw the head of the statue at Beelzebub and placed a palm on his forehead instead. His teeth gritted as he struggled to figure out what to do, deciding on whether he should give up or find Aziraphale despite the worry that the other will attack him the moment he sees him. His decision making was interrupted by Anathema calling him over. 

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

He walked over to her, putting the doll into his pocket along with his hand, almost like a comfort object. “Anathema, you should get out of here already. Doubt London is gonna stay up for much longer.”

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Anathema frowned, shaking her head and closed a book that was previously open. She squinted her eyes through her raindrop covered glasses lenses, lifting the helm of her dress up a bit when water gradually began to flood the grass. “You aren’t getting rid of me yet. Listen, I don’t know how demons work with their problems but I think you should go talk to Aziraphale.”

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“What? _Talk _to him?” he repeated, widening his eyes with a quick head shake. “No. Nope. Not happening.”__

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“And why not?”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“He discorporated a blasted archangel by himself, not that I blame him but shit. I don’t exactly feel like getting discorporated from asking him ‘Hello there, angel of my life, you seem a bit close to going apeshit after stabbing your ex-boss. Do you need to talk?’ while he’s in a pissy mood.”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

An inpatient sigh came from Anathema but she took a deep breath, putting a hand out somewhat calmly. “Crowley. London is about to get destroyed soon, remember? You are the only one left here who can actually get near him. I can’t go for obvious reasons and he’s bound to listen to you, I think. From how I’ve seen you two act before, I doubt he would hurt you. Besides, do you like living here with him?”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Well I- ngk. I wouldn’t say ‘like’. Like is a four lettered word.”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“My point exactly so go and at least try. Besides the worst case scenario is that we fail, Aziraphale ends up destroying everything we know and we have to leave our home. So...no pressure.” She raised her hands up and turned Crowley around by his shoulders, giving him a small push. The occultist held the hair out of her face when the wind increased further, leaning against a bending tree and watched Crowley flip Beelzebub off before hurrying into the fog. 

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

\---

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Aziraphale!”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The sound of Crowley’s repeated calls fell on deaf ears as he moved aimlessly after attempting to miracle away the fog only for it to be cancelled out by an opposing force. Squeezing the doll in his pocket for reassurance, he called out Aziraphale’s name again as the fog hugged his body. 

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Blasted. Azira-!”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“What do you want, Crowley?” Four voices called back, ranging in different pitches, only one sounded like his fallen angel’s voice. Crowley glanced around to find him but haze seemed to stretch on forever. He sucked his teeth, frowning and stopped walking.

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Aziraphale, we need to talk.”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

He could faintly hear a worn out sigh come from the side. 

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“There’s nothing to talk about. Please go away now.”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Crowley subdued a wince at that as shook his head with a scoff, leaning his weight onto one foot.

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“No.”

___________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“ _Crowley _.” The edge in one of Aziraphale’s voices made a smirk tug at the corner of his lips, hearing how he was beginning to get irritated. “You can go away, don’t you know? The storm is getting worse and I wish to be alone.”__

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Nope sorry. You’re going to have to come out for me to leave, angel.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Right as he said that, an annoyed huff sounded from somewhere and observed an owl fly down onto an eye level branch from a old tree. Crowley pursed his lips, moving over to the branch to look at Aziraphale closer and put his free hand into his pocket. “I was hoping you would be in your… y’know, non...owlish appearance.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“I doubt you would want to see me like that.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Fighting back the heavy temptation to argue, Crowley tutted as he felt relief hearing Aziraphale’s normal voice. He took an unneeded breath, pulling off his dark sunglasses to look at the other with sober eyes. “Aziraphale, you need to stop this. Call it off or something. Shit, London is going to be ruined. What about the humans? The kids.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Aziraphale shifted around on the branch, hesitating before speaking. “...no. No. They have time to leave. They’ll be okay.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Crowley furrowed his eyebrows, scrunching his nose up and jammed his glasses into his pocket with frustration. Taking a step forward to the owl who seemed to back up some. “Why the hell not? Just call it off.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“I, uh, can’t tell you. Crowley, just go. I could've sworn I saw Anathema there too, take her and her dear with you.” 

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“What? I said I’m not leaving. And I tried telling her to go but she’s too stubborn so that’s on her. Aziraphale, c’mon we can go back to my flat and do whatever the hell we want. Seriously, let’s go. End it so we can leave already...please.”

_____________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Opening his mouth to answer, Aziraphale ruffled his feathers once he remembered the files Beelzebub gave him and glared at Crowley after closing his mouth. He stood up more on the branch, batting his wings out and pointed them down. “Crowley, enough. I’m tired of your temptations and I refuse to go with someone who’s tired of me. I know what you did already so go _away _.”__

_______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Wot. ‘Know what I did’? How hard did Gabriel hit your head, angel?” Crowley asked and tightened his lips when Aziraphale scowled, running his hand through his own hair. “Look, I don’t know what you heard or from who but I’m not fucking tired of you. And I told you already. I’m not leaving and you’re just going to have to deal with that.”

_______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The demon was silent as he stared at Aziraphale while he shifted back to normal, wings loose with a frown on his face. Crowley cursed to himself, letting his own wings come out and took a step back. Not wanting to actually fight his partner, he came up with a plan and hoped that Aziraphale felt the same.

_______________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you again soon ❤❤❤


	15. Quiet Drizzle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day <3

With a strategy in the back of his mind, Crowley squeezed the doll once more and rammed his wings down to take off into the rainy sky after Aziraphale did as well. Shoulders tensing, he pressed his lips together as he took sight of the other demon who didn’t move to fight. The two stayed put, waiting for the other to attack first. Crowley flew towards Aziraphale in an awkward manner, jabbing a loose fist at him and purposely missed.

One of Aziraphale’s eyes glanced to the side before looking forward, pushing Crowley back and doing it again repeatedly. He continued to move Crowley backwards, planning on moving him back until he was out of the city. 

Crowley scoffed, grabbing Aziraphale’s hands before pushing him back to where they were before. They released each other’s hands to circle around each other, faking hits and shooting fire at each other despite both knowing it wouldn’t hurt the other when it seemed necessary. Crowley gave Aziraphale a look, rolling his eyes when he smiled clumsily. Realization crossed his face as he remembered something Beelzebub said to him. 

A mischievous smile grew, allowing Aziraphale to come at him with another ‘attack’ and used one of his hands to grab his shoulder with a firm grip once he was close enough. He lifted his free hand up menacingly, chuckling while Aziraphale’s nervous eyes widened with a sharp inhale, trying to get away from the serpent. 

An adorable little box of multicolored macarons was summoned in Crowley’s free hand.

Aziraphale stopped in his tracks, staring wide eyed at the desserts when they were moved in front of him. A short gasp came from him, grinning at Crowley as a form of a thank you and went to grab the gift. He squeaked as he was forced downwards, the box disappeared almost instantly. 

“Crowley, that was unfair!” he huffed, feeling the wind run through the wings on his face and held onto Crowley’s wrists. Crowley squeezed his shoulders lightly, pushing him down to the Earth and sniggered.

“I was just thinking outside the box. If you know what I mean.” He winked and bit back a snicker as all of Aziraphale’s eyes rolled, continuing moving him down. Aziraphale put his hands onto Crowley’s shoulders, lips tightening as they drew closer to the ground. Crowley blinked when a teardrop flew onto his cheek. 

Once they had landed, Crowley kept his hands on Aziraphale’s shoulders looking at him with a desperate expression.

“Angel, I like living here and I thought you did too. And I don’t feel like moving again right now. Do you really want your bookshop to be...destroyed again?”

“Of course not!” Aziraphale receded, rubbing his thumbs together with a glance to the ground. “I just...you and...Heaven. Beelzebub, they found me and showed me how you...left me in Hell because you became tired of me. I got...carried away. Crowley, you don’t have to talk to me you know.”

Crowley’s face twisted, grip tightening on his shoulders and shook his head tensely. “I need to get a blasted flyswatter. Bloody hell. I didn’t fucking leave you there. I went to Hell the moment the arseholes in Heaven let me go and Beelzebub made me wait for you.” 

“Oh… oh. But be honest, dear boy. Did you like me better as an...angel?"

“Aziraphale.” Crowley’s voice tightened, putting his hand on Aziraphale’s cheek, face softening. “I don’t care if you're an angel, a demon or a damn aardvark. You’re absolutely perfect, angel and I’ll always like you. Remember when I said you’re just enough of a bastard worth knowing? Yeah, well, you’re _my _bastard. And besides. You can’t get rid of me that easily. You didn’t keep the receipt after meeting me.”__

____

Aziraphale’s primary eyes that were hidden began to cry, putting his hand over Crowley’s and tried to keep his voice steady as he talked. “Th-that was sick-making, my dear. I’m so sorry. I’ve m..made quite a mess of things and caused more trouble for you. I would like to make it up to you somehow…”

____

“Enough apologizing and you can make it up to me by stopping this hurricane before the wine gets ruined.”

____

“Oh right, yes,” he sniffed, holding out his hand to which Crowley held onto his wrist as he stopped the storm and reversed the damage of the lightening with some of the other’s help. 

____

The harsh rain turned into a gentle drizzle, wind died down as the clouds returned to a soft grey color. Humans gradually went outside to check if it was safe. Aziraphale lifted up his wing to cover Crowley when he heard him huff at the downpour. The wings on Aziraphale’s face disappeared, his primary eyes reopened as the exposed skin on his cheek sealed up only to leave a faint scar. The creatures on his body kept close to him as raindrops hit them. He kept his wing over Crowley as he was pulled to his side, smiling lightly when Crowley leaned his head onto his shoulder.

____

“We need a bloody vacation.”

____

“I agree.”

____

\---

____

The two demons walked side by side as they went back to Anathema, smiling with an ‘I told you’ expression at Crowley. He huffed while she opened her mouth to speak, quickly hiding behind the tree once Beelzebub came into view. Crowley hissed at zem, holding onto Aziraphale’s waist whilst Aziraphale sighed tiredly.

____

“Beelzebub, please.”

____

The prince only yawned, frowning as usual but the content was clear in their eyes. “Hell will be expecting you to return again soon, Aziraphale. We still have work that needszz to be done. Crowley, I don’t care if you come too or not. Don’t make me wait too long.”

____

With that ze were gone, leaving them disoriented. Crowley narrowed his eyes, Aziraphale cleared his throat and turned to Anathema once she came out of hiding.

____

“Thank you, Anethema, for coming to our aid. Terribly sorry for ruining your hair with the wind.”

____

Anathema’s hair was a complete mess but she waved her hand dismissively, cleaning her fogged up glasses on her skirt. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Crowley over here probably wouldn’t have figured it out on his own.” She smiled when Crowley shot a frown at her and continued. “You two should come over to my cottage sometime if you want to.”

____

“Jolly good! We’ll be coming over tomorrow. We just...wish to um, rest first,” said Aziraphale, rubbing his eyes as Crowley leaned onto him with a nod. “You have our thanks but we should be going now.”

____

After Anathema nodded and went on her way back to her home, the pair headed to the bookstore. They went inside, holding hands and passed the angel wing mug that was left with the wine bottle. Bugs crawled or flew off of Aziraphale as they walked through the now tidy bookshop after a small miracle was performed. Crowley went to grab the small demon doll that he thought was still in his pocket but to his confusion, it was gone. 

____

Heading upstairs into the bedroom, Aziraphale opened the door and closed the curtains while Crowley turned into a snake. Crowley slithered onto the bed as Aziraphale shifted into an owl, landing on the blankets.

____

“Goodnight, dearest,” Aziraphale murmured, tugging at a blanket to cover them both after Crowley wrapped around him. He lowered his head down slightly as his eyes closed, letting the other hug around him tighter. 

____

“Night, angel.”

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course I wasn't going to have them actually fight each other. They're too soft for that and I would not allow it. I may be angsty but not that angsty. Now begins some well deserved comfort and a bit of lightheartedness. For now.
> 
> Till next time ღღ
> 
> Sick-making: Overly Sentimental


	16. Anthurium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor Tw for decapitation (No one is getting killed. Don't worry)

_Red hair fell on his face as he sighed, brushing it away again. Hugging his legs whilst sitting on a cloud that seemed never ending, his pinky finger had a greyish green ribbon tied on it. He lifted his head up, hearing his name being called and stood. He felt his right arm move up without warning, now holding a sword. Confusion drew on his face until his body moved again, now standing in front of an angel who was on his knees with a calm, smiling expression as he looked up at him. He knew this face. Not meaning to, his arms lifted up, gripping the sword and sliced it down through the angel’s neck. ___

_Head falling off, what was left in its place on the angel’s neck was a blooming white rose and a primrose with leafy vines coming out as well. ___

\---

The sun went down and rose again after a couple of hours as the demons slept somewhat soundly except for one. Aziraphale trilled, opening his eyelids groggily and glanced down at Crowley who was sleeping with his eyes open. Probably because he doesn’t have eyelids as a snake.

Aziraphale stretched his wings out, hearing Crowley grumble inaudibly when he moved and leaned his head down to him while closing his eyes. “Lovely morning, dear.”

“Morning.” Crowley lifted his head up and pressed it against Aziraphale’s, not wanting to get out of bed yet. He had hoped to ask him if they could stay cuddling until Aziraphale shifted back to normal, smiling down at him. Crowley begrudgingly did the same, his shoulders slumped as went to go lean on Aziraphale before deciding against it. Aziraphale frowned at that.

“Is...did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

Aziraphale watched Crowley shift his pinky finger over his own and his brows knitted, looking at him. His mind brought back an old memory. “Crowley, I remembered that I have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“I meant to ask you this but we got distracted with...other things. Before, when we were in the bookshop a few days ago. What did you mean when you said that this is your fault?”

The temperature dropped. A subtle flinch came from Crowley, face contorting and made sure not to look at Aziraphale. He ran his hand through his own hair, staring down at the bed. “C’mon angel, you already know what that means. Don’t make me say it.”

“...why would you think that any of this is your fault?”

Sighing, Crowley pinched his nose. He could already imagine how concerned Aziraphale’s expression looked based off of the worry in his voice. He hated it. “Because it is? Angel, back in Heaven, they were right when they said that none of this would have happened if I never _‘fraternized’ _with you. Falling is shitty by itself but maybe if I didn’t talk to you, you wouldn’t have to get your wings fucking torn off! Hastur was a little too happy knowing he could get to you after I did away with that chameleon bastard. You ssseriously can’t tell me that it isn’t my damn fault.”__

“Because it’s not, Crowley,” Aziraphale said firmly, cupping the sides of Crowley’s face as he tenderly made him turn to him. Yellow eyes locking with black ones, the temperature raised back to its normal temperature. “Dear, I was probably going to fall anyways even if I hadn’t met you. I...like to indulge quite often. Point is that there is nothing for you to feel guilty about. I meant it when I said I would fall for you multiple times if that meant I could be with you, dear boy. And besides, I have you to thank for helping me through this. I’m sorry for making such a mess of things though.”

“And you said I was cheesy,” Crowley joked, putting one of his palms on his own forehead and rapidly blinked his eyes when they felt watery. He glanced away once Aziraphale smiled brightly, squinting his eyes. “Mn, fine. Alright...thanks, angel. And you already said sorry, I don’t need you to say it till my ear falls off. Just next time, talk to me instead of listening to that fly bastard and causing a hurricane.” 

“Understood.” Aziraphale beamed and took his hands off of Crowley’s face, clearly to the serpent’s disappointment. He wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling Crowley into a much needed embrace and rubbed his hands in circles across his back. They sat there, comforting each other without words and pulled back to press foreheads together. “We should get ready to go to Anathema's now, dearest.” 

“Fine.” Crowley’s heart swelled like it had always when hearing his nickname and stood up, holding a hand out for Aziraphale to take to which he did. The pair went downstairs as Aziraphale changed clothes with a minor miracle. A light grey hooded poncho draped over his shoulders, keeping the beige vest and now slightly darkened blue shirt underneath. The bowtie was still there even though it was hidden. He smiled at Crowley who returned the grin while putting on his sunglasses.

After the bugs crawled back on Aziraphale’s body and he ate a bigger than normal breakfast with Crowley watching, they went into the Bentley. As they began driving to Anathema's place, a car almost crashed into them.

“Crowley, slow down! You- watch the road! The cyclist, dear! Stop turning like that! Why do you have to make such sharp turns?”

“Quit backseat driving. I know what I’m doing,” Crowley scoffed as he sharply turned again, smirking when Aziraphale continued to fuss. He would purposely drive too close to other cars, only to annoy his demon more. The Bentley was not appreciating how she was being driven.

“Dear, that’s the final straw. When we are done at Anathema’s place, I’m driving us back home. You’re going to get us killed.”

“What? Angel, you have never driven once before in your life. How the hell are you going to get us back in one piece?”

Aziraphale huffed, fixing his bowtie as Crowley pulled up to Anathema’s cottage, pouting his bottom lip out. “It shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure I can manage. Unlike you, I know the rules of the road.”

“‘I know the rules of the road’,” he mocked in a whisper, getting out the car along with Aziraphale. They walked closely together, knocking on the door once they got close. Newt answered the door and almost had a heart attack when he saw Aziraphale’s eyes along with the giant moth and spider on his face.

“Hello.” Aziraphale smiled politely in contrast to Crowley whose face was relaxed but it looked like an irritated frown. Newt winced at Crowley’s frown and called Anathema, staying by her when she went over. “Sorry, we’re a minute late. _Someone _kept driving recklessly.”__

“Don’t worry about it.” Anathema shook her head, holding Newt’s hand as she let the two demons inside who silently bickered. She blinked when Aziraphale asked if she had any leftover food she wouldn’t mind sharing. “Uh, yes actually. I bought us a cake that we were going to throw away. It’s too much for the two of us. It’s on that table there.”

“Thank you, dear.” Aziraphale bowed some and went over to the leftover cake that was pretty much still whole. Anathema along with her boyfriend sat down in front of Crowley who was sitting on a chair. They moved closer to each other, cuddling and looked at the snake demon when he scoffed.

“Love sickens me. I don’t understand why humans make such a big deal about it. It almost never lasts anyways.”

“You literally have a boyfriend,” Anathema pointed out, a teasing smile growing as Crowley made a string of incoherent noises.

“It doesn’t count.”

“Not to mention, he looks kind of scary too,” Newt mumbled, not meaning to say that out loud and widened his eyes when Crowley frowned disapprovingly at him.

“Look better,” he told him and gestured his hand at Aziraphale while tilting his chin up a bit as the humans followed the gesture. “See? Can’t you see that he’s beautiful? Obviously I would feel something for him. I can’t seem to keep myself away from him. Watch.”

Aziraphale gagged and coughed up a small bone that might have belonged to a bird. No one dared to ask. He tossed it into a petite trash can, smiling at the leftover cake and grabbed the sides of it. He put the whole thing into his mouth. The scar on his cheek reopened so he could stuff the cake easier.

The mortals observed in awe and fear as Aziraphale attempted to swallow the dessert entirely like an owl after deciding that chewing like a normal person was for weaklings. Crowley watched him, absolutely smitten and summoned a stool for Aziraphale to sit on once he was ready. 

“Why are demons so weird?” Newt whispered to Anathema, only receiving a shrug as an answer. 

“Angel.”

A snap filled the room when Aziraphale turned head around fully, smiling as best as he could. His words came out slurred, eyes sparkling nonetheless. “Yesh, dear?”

Crowley waved his hand over to himself, stating that he was cold and winked at him from behind his glasses. Aziraphale nodded, walking over and ignored the fact there was an empty stool. He happily shared the small chair with Crowley somehow. 

\---

“Here, buddy. This is a more uh, advanced phone.” Newt showed Aziraphale a better phone than his old model Nokia 3310 after he saw the demon holding it. He tried to not press any buttons on the phone, worried that he might make it break. Newt took the Nokia phone away from him, giving him the phone that was once his and squinted his eyes a bit as Aziraphale beamed brighter than the sun at him.

“I can’t thank you enough for this. It’s...how you say...oh! This is very jazzed up.”

“What.”

Anathema pursed his lips, pushing back her glasses and shook her head at Crowley who sat in front of her. “No matter what you tell me, I won’t believe that the Earth is a cube.”

“Oh c’mon, witch. I can fly into space and you can’t. I’ve seen the Earth in person. And besides, would I ever lie to you?”

“Yes.”

Crowley huffed, pretending to be offended and ended up smiling when Aziraphale moved over to him. The demon showed off his ‘new’ phone to him, rambling about the features. Crowley fought back a snicker, wrapping his arm around Aziraphale’s shoulders and nodded as he continued to talk.

“Dear, and look! When I press my finger against the screen and swipe to the right, the screen moves too!” He grinned, showing Crowley how to do it despite the other already knowing but the serpent listened anyways. 

The four of them continued to talk until Newt yelled when the spider on Aziraphale’s cheek jumped onto his face. The spider was scolded by Aziraphale with Anathema and Crowley sniggered in the background.

“Terribly sorry,” Aziraphale huffed, feeling the spider crawl under his chin and smiled apologetically at Newt. With a glance to a clock on the wall, he blinked and glanced over at his demon. “Crowley, it’s getting late. Anathema, Newt, thank you for the hospitality but we should get going now.”

The two humans went back together; Anathema softly smiled and nodded. She adjusted the sleeves on her arms while talking. “Don’t mention it. And thank you for not flooding London, Aziraphale.”

“For not flooding what now?” asked Newt.

Waving a final goodbye to the pair, Aziraphale and Crowley walked outside the cottage and to the Bentley. Crowley was about to open the driver’s seat until he was stopped by a hand holding the handle first.

“Dear. I’m driving, remember?”

“Shit, we’re going to die.” Crowley reluctantly got to the passenger’s seat, putting on his seatbelt as tightly as possible while Aziraphale sat in the driver's seat. Aziraphale put his hands on the steering wheel, smiling till he paused. 

“Crowley, how do you turn on the car?”

“Bloody hell.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the winter storm that hit Tx, I'm a bit behind on writing. However, I'll post again this week. 
> 
> Till next time and if any of you live in Texas, I hope you are doing okay and if you're still being affected by the storm, please stay safe ♥♥


	17. More than Meets the Eye

“Ah, I seem to understand now.”

Aziraphale confidently turned on the car, ignoring Crowley’s frown and pressed his foot down on the gas pedal. They almost drove into Anathema’s cottage.

“Angel! Fuck, put it in reverse!”

“I know what I’m doing, Crowley!” Aziraphale pouted, putting the gear lever in reverse as the Bentley started blasting Queen love songs. They were able to drive onto the road in one piece. Crowley noticed the Bentley adjusting the driver’s seat to make Aziraphale more comfortable.

“Stop spoiling him,” Crowley told the Bentley in a hushed tone, rolling his eyes when he got a honk as a reply. He gripped onto his seat, knuckles turning white as Aziraphale began moving the steering wheel like how a child would. “Aziraphale, stop trying to kill us for someone’s sake!”

“Dear, quit side seat driving please.”

“ _Backseat _driving. Not bloody ‘side seat’- you’re driving on the wrong side of the road!”__

“No I’m…” Aziraphale realized he was driving on the right side of the road, mumbling “oops” and recklessly drove onto the left side which made cars honk at them. Crowley growled and stuck his head out of the window, flipping other drivers off. Bentley was enjoying the thrill of the drive; Crowley was yelling at the demon to stop driving on the sidewalk or to pay attention when Aziraphale got distracted while talking to him. 

Closing his eyes for a moment, Aziraphale took a relaxing deep breath as he almost crashed them into a tree. The pair ended up bickering if they should stop for crepes. Aziraphale kept one hand on the wheel and turned his head to Crowley. Pedestrians began arguing over petty things, accidentally caused by Aziraphale as they went past them.

“Dear boy, you’re being completely unreasonable. We can make a quick stop.”

“ _I’m _being blasted unreasonable? We can just miracle them up at the shop. It’s getting cold and I don’t like it- angel!” Crowley reached over and grabbed at the steering wheel much to Aziraphale’s disapproval, trying to drive them back onto the road after realizing they were on the grass. Lightheartedly complaining to each other, they managed to get back to the bookshop safely. Aziraphale smiled, taking the keys out of the ignition switch with a soft sigh__

“Driving is quite fun! No wonder you like doing it so often. Next time I’ll-’

“No the hell you’re not.” Crowley snatched the car keys from his partner’s hand, shaking his head and scoffed when Aziraphale pulled a frown. “Stop looking at me like that. For now on, I’ll be the driver. Even if I somehow break both my damn arms and legs, I’m driving. You’re banned from touching the steering wheel again.”

“But Crowley!”

The serpent almost gave in when he saw the other give him a puppy eyed look, quickly turning his head away and bit back a laugh while hearing Aziraphale huff. Getting out of the car, he glanced at him and snorted how Aziraphale kept his arms crossed as they walked up to the bookshop. 

“You’re so fussy.”

“Am not.” 

Crowley opened the door for the both of them, grinning teasingly after noticing Aziraphale pushing back a smile and went inside with him. The once hot now cold cocoa that remained idle next to the half empty wine bottle was still on the table, waiting to be acknowledged. Finally noticing the mug, Aziraphale forgot about the crepes and went over to it. 

“Crowley, dear boy, did you make this?” he asked as he picked it up, looking back at Crowley whose cheeks reddened and shrugged. 

“Just miracled it up. Nothing special.” Crowley glanced off, trying to play it cool and eventually failing as the warm, loving smile on Aziraphale’s face brightened. He led them to the couch, sitting and took a sip from the beer bottle that was left alone. 

Miracling the coco warm again, Aziraphale took a sip and sighed with contentment. A small temptation arose; he glanced at Crowley who had a serenity filled expression on his face, eyes closed behind the darkened sunglasses. Aziraphale bit back a smile, forcing himself to yawn and tilted his head to the right.

Crowley reopened his eyes when he felt a weight on his shoulder, peering downwards to see Aziraphale laying his head down with an obvious forced back smile. Moving a hand over his mouth, Crowley felt heat burn in his face and glimpsed away. He wrapped his arm around Aziraphale’s shoulders hesitantly and swallowed. 

The crawling of multiple tiny legs up his neck caused a cringe out of Crowley, snapping his arm from his demon. “What the fu-”

“Crowley?”

Holding a cricket one of its legs, Crowley pursed his lips and showed it off to Aziraphale with an irradiated hiss. “ _Pests _. What is up with these bugs, angel? Thought you would have gotten ridden of them by now.”__

__“Well…” he trailed off, thumbs twiddling as the blackened cricket hopped back onto his face. “They don’t seem like they wish to leave.”_ _

__“So? I can deal with them if you want.”_ _

__“No need for that, I’ll leave them be. I’ve grown fond of them.” Aziraphale petted the moth on its fuzzy body. He gulped down the hot chocolate, beaming once he was finished. His fingers tightened on the mug, face screwing up slightly as a temptation came back again. Taking a shallow breath, he leaned up and kissed Crowley on the cheek. “Thank you for the drink, my dear boy. It was lovely.”_ _

__Crowley’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t stop the bashful smile from forming on his face and put his free hand over his cheek, watching Aziraphale hurry into the kitchen. He put his other hand on his forehead, keeping his cheek covered and tilted his head back with a string of jumbled, happy mumbles came from him._ _

__Aziraphale’s face flushed as he set the mug in a sink; he was practically glowing. He rocked on his heels, smiling to himself and put his hands together to conceal his bursting joy. Faintly, he heard a small buzzing and his grin dropped, seeing a fly on the kitchen counter. He watched it fly onto his left shoulder before buzzing away. Beelzebub’s words rang back in his head._ _

__“Angel!” His head turned around after hearing Crowley call out, eyebrows beginning to furrow as the demon continued. “Angel, come here. I’m getting cold.”_ _

__Going back over to the couch, Aziraphale sat down and softly smiled whilst Crowley laid his head down on his lap. His fingers ran through ginger colored hair, face contorting with stress. He tried to hide his worry after Crowley looked up at him frowning._ _

__“What’s wrong, Aziraphale?”_ _

__“Nothing, dear.” Aziraphale looked off to the side, fingers stopping from brushing Crowley’s hair to his disappointment and took a breath. “It’s just that Beelzebub said we both...well I have to go back to Hell for work, remember?”_ _

__“You sure we can’t just ignore them and stay up here?”_ _

__“Crowley.”_ _

__Crowley sighed with an eye roll, sitting up begrudgingly and crossed his arms. “Don’t tell me you’re seriously thinking about going downstairs. What about what happened last time? You can’t tell me it's some blasted paperwork. Arseholes, all of them.”_ _

__“I know, dear boy but...what if it is paperwork?”_ _

__“Tell me you’re joking.”_ _

__Aziraphale huffed, standing while bringing Crowey up with him. He looked at him, trying to gulp and held onto his wrists loosely. “Once we’re done, we can have a drink of the nice champagne I have in the back.”_ _

__Crowley gave in after seeing Aziraphale’s pleading eyes, sighing and nodded. He pushed back his glasses while grabbing onto the other’s hand protectively. With a simple snap, he teleported them both to Hell._ _

__The smoldering heat hit them as they went into Hell, holding hand in hand whilst they walked through the horde. Fewer demons mocked them, some shuddered away. A familiar rat demon held a torture hook for their work, recoiling when Azirpahale frowned at them. Aziraphale shrunk in on himself slightly, noticing the eerie, silent stares coming from other hellish beings. Crowley shot a glare at a lower demon, smirking when they ran off. His smirk faded as they were stopped by the Lord of the Files, Dagon._ _

__“Right, there you are. Get in Lord Beelzebub’s office. Now,” he ordered, opening the door to the dimly lit office that had flies swarming about and narrowed her eyes at them._ _

__“We’re going, we’re going,” scoffed Crowley, leading Aziraphale inside and kept a tight lipped smile as he began talking to the prince sitting on a chair behind a desk. “Beelzebub.”_ _

__“For a traitor, you really like coming back down here, don’t you?”_ _

__Before Crowley could get a chance to curse at them, Aziraphale cut in and moved in front of the serpent. “You said there was still work. What do you want from me now?”_ _

__“You say that like it’sz a bad thing,” droned Beelzebub, leaning their chin on their hands. Ze gestured to a small stack of papers, never once breaking eye contact with Aziraphale. “You never did the paperwork. That still needzz to be done.”_ _

__“...paperwork?” Aziraphale blinked, glancing at Crowley who shook his head at him with the distrust laced into his features. He let out a breath, letting go of Crowley’s hand to grab the papers. “Oh, it really is.”_ _

__“The hell? Lemme see.” Crowley went up from behind him to look, lowering his glasses and pursed his lips. “Well shit.”_ _

__“What else would it be?” Beelzebub rolled their eyes, handing Aziraphale a pen that was next to two dolls on their desk and waved to a ragged chair. Ze watched him sit down, beginning to read and write things down on the papers. Their gaze shifted to Crowley whilst he stood over Aziraphale. “Do you want to reconsider my offer? You didn’t give me an answer last time. Hell could usze your ‘talentsz.’”_ _

__“I sssaid this already before. N…” He trailed off as Aziraphale stood up, giving the filled out papers to the prince and went back to him. His hand was held by the other, the refusal he was about to say died in his throat._ _

__Faint buzzing came from the flies on Beelzebub’s face, ze looked through the files and only gave a glance to Aziraphale when he said goodbye. The corner of zir lips tugged up, letting the two demons leave zir office._ _

__A breath of relief came from Aziraphale, letting his eyes close for a moment. He went to speak something to Crowley to reassure him until he felt cracked nails pierce into his arm. Yelping, he was taken from Crowley and slammed up against a wall outside of Beelzebub’s office. Hands clenched around his neck, thumbs driving in deeply to strangle him. The overbearing smell of rot filled his nostrils, the back of head was pressed against the moldy wall as he stared back into similar black, sadistic eyes._ _

__“I didn’t think you would be back down here anytime soon. You know, I was feeling a bit bored. Good thing you came just in time, eh?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Till next time ❦❦❦


	18. Descendants of Sin

Feet dangling above the ground, small ragged breaths came from Aziraphale as he dug his nails into the Duke of Hell’s wrists. He wrinkled his nose at Hastur’s foul stench, maggots approaching his face. 

“Was the brat right when he said I smelled like...poo?” Hastur mumbled to myself after seeing Aziraphale’s face scrunch up with a nod. He scoffed, tightening his grip on the stiff neck. “Whatever. How about a little rematch? Just me and you.”

“We…” Aziraphale choked out, eyes beginning to water as he scratched at Hastur’s wrists. “Never...had a m-match.”

“Really? Thought we...wait. It was that one moron, right?”

“Can’t we be left alone for one bloody minute?!” Crowley snapped, grabbing Hastur’s arm and tugged at it. He eventually ripped the duke away from him after using almost all his strength to separate them. Grabbing a hold of Aziraphale, he brought him over to himself and hissed at Hastur. “Fuck your ‘rematch.’ We were just leaving so bugger off.”

“So what? You can’t stay for a little friendly rivalry? Besides, you aren’t going anywhere now. And quit answering for ‘em. He got a mouth.” Hastur took a smoke from the cigarette that was now in between his fingers after summoning it. The frog on his head made an unpleasant croak; a crooked smile grew as he stepped forward. “It won’t take long, demon’s honor. A few seconds at best. That’s about how much time I need to break his neck. I don’t care what happened in that arena before; it was bullshit anyways. You belong in the lower pits, I mean look at ya. Crowley over there, I’ll deal with him later.”

Aziraphale’s face flushed red, jabbing his finger at the duke and tried to move before getting stopped by Crowley who was fuming. “Now you listen here, you bad demon-!”

“Go easy on him, angel.” Crowley held onto him tighter when Aziraphale attempted to march to the duke again. He shot a glower at Hastur and flipped him off. “I know what you’re tryin’ to do and it’s not going to work. Bugger off already, you arsehole.”

“I’m not doing nothing.” Hastur put up his hands innocently, a smirk growing as he continued to egg Aziraphale and Crowley on. “Say, ‘angel’, I heard you were immune to hellfire. Crowley, you wouldn’t mind if I doused some holy water on him like how you did with Ligur, right? I mean he _should _be immune to it, so why not give it a shot? Do a little test run. How are those new wings by the way? Mind if I take a feather or two?”__

__“Unhand me at once, Crowley, and let me-”_ _

__“As much as I enjoy watching a fight and torture, I suggest not doing it in front of Lord Beelzebub’s office. You might interrupt their work and I don’t want to hear them complaining,” Dagon cut in, moving in between the demons and putting his hands behind his back. “Why don’t you make some middle ground first? And then you can kill each other. We’re high ranking demons, show a bit of formality.”_ _

__Still shooting glares at each other, they all silently agreed. Hastur smirked at the pair before turning around. Crowley loosened his grip on Aziraphale who fixed his bowtie, putting his hands together while watching Hastur maneuver his hands slyly. The silence stretched over, eyes glowing against the dimed lighting of Hell. Aziraphale’s distrustful look narrowed, observing Hastur’s arms closer as if he was pouring something into a glass whilst Crowley looked off somewhere impatiently._ _

__Hastur closed the lid to the small container after pouring the subtle green liquid into the scarlet wines he miracled up. He put the container away deep in his pocket, grabbing hold of the two glasses and turned to the pair once more. Walking to them, he held out his hands as an offering._ _

__“How about we...talk this over a couple of drinks then? Don’t wanna make Lord Beelzebub pissed. We can have some type of manners,” the duke said, inching the drinks closer to them with a dark glint in his eyes. His smile widened as Crowley’s hand went to grab one of the glasses._ _

__Aziraphale shoved Crowley’s hand away and slapped the wine glasses filled with poison out of Hastur’s grip to his surprise. Sneering, Aziraphale raised an eyebrow while rage filled the demon’s expression. A yelp escaped out of Aziraphale when Hastur backhanded his cheek with as much strength as he could muster. Sending him to the ground next to a demon walking with a steel cane._ _

__Crowley’s eyes widened, looking at Aziraphale who had returned the stunned gaze with his hand covering his stinging cheek. Aziraphale growled, spotting the demon next to him and eyed the cane they held. He stood up to steal it away and shot past Crowley. After a miracle, the end of the cane was sharpened to the point where it was fatal. He then ran to stab at Hastur, grip tightening as his knuckles turned white._ _

__Narrowly missing, a boot then plunged into his stomach and forced Aziraphale away. Hastur went to mock him until the back of his head was seized. His head was tilted back then collided into a nearby wall, nose cracking on impact. Scales began forming on the side of Crowley’s face from anger; he went over to his partner, bending down._ _

__“Come on, angel,” he muttered, pulling him up to his side. Checking to see if Aziraphale was fine out of instincts, Hastur ripped a torture hook from Rune’s grip. Instantly pushing Crowley out of the way, Aziraphale brought the cane to his face as the hook swung down. The two demons went at each other, aiming their weapons at lethal points. Crowley narrowed his eyes, waiting for a chance to strike._ _

__With the cane starting to crack, Aziraphale’s foot came from the ground and planted into Hastur’s shin. Hastur grunted, growling as Aziraphale jumped back. The owl demon smugly smiled, waving his finger to himself. Hastur went to attack till noticing Crowley coming at him with new grown claws. He grabbed onto Aziraphale's collar, fabric beginning to tear and held him in front of himself in a split second as Crowley aimed to strike him._ _

__Crowley’s claws slashed at Aziraphale’s face instead of Hastur’s._ _

__“Aziraphale! Fucking shit. I’m sorry, damnit! Let me heal-”_ _

__After discarding Aziraphale to the side, Hastur smashed his fist into Crowley’s face, sunglasses breaking in two. Crowley yelled as the point from the hook sliced at his cheek. His hands went up to cover his face; Hastur snapped his foot into Crowley’s gut, propelling him to the floor._ _

__Aziraphale groaned, his face burned as his fingers touched the blood dripping down from the open cuts. He attempted to locate Crowley through blurry vision and his jaw fell once he did. His eyebrow twitched as he watched Crowley hiss at the injuries on his face. His eyes slowly moved in Hastur’s direction as the duke began to taunt._ _

__“Told ya it wouldn’t take long. Anyways show me your wings, why don’t ya. The other one I got is looking a bit lonely without its pair so lemme take one of your new ones if you don’t mind.”_ _

__A harsh growl came from the back of his throat, grabbing the cane and charging at Hastur. The cricket on his neck crawled to the side of it. He swung the weapon at Hastur, attacking more recklessly after his poncho was torn up. Ducking down from a hit that was aimed at his forehead, Hastur grabbed at the sharpened cane. He tore it out of the tight grip and stabbed Aziraphale in the neck, killing the cricket in the action._ _

__Aziraphale bit back a shout as the cane left his neck, snatching Hastur’s hook with his teeth bared. He cut off the duke’s right thumb and slammed him into a rotting wall with one of his wings._ _

__Blood dripped down his neck as he held it. The carcass of the cricket laid next to the cracked cane with a crimson stained end. Aziraphale stared at it, listening to Crowley groan and get back onto his feet. His gaze shifted over to Hastur who muttered complaints about his broken nose and missing thumb. Unbeknownst to the three, Beelzebub stood next to Dagon in front of zir open door._ _

__Hastur grumbled a curse, wiping the blood from under his nose. His head looked up when he heard the faint sound of footsteps nearing him. Where his thumb used to be pulsed in pain despite his focus being on Aziraphale standing above him. Hastur scowled, glaring daggers at the mangled face._ _

__“Get the hell away from me, you soft prick! After this, I don’t give a fuck what Beelzebub says, I’m gonna throw you back into that torture room and pick up where we left off at.”_ _

__His threat remained unanswered; pushed back memories invaded Aziraphale’s head, his clenched fists trembled. He gritted his teeth and ended up pounding his fist into the side of Hastur’s face. Hastur’s already broken nose was abused during the repeating hits._ _

__Panting shakily, Aziraphale stopped punching and unclenched his bruised knuckles. Hastur groaned, trying to steady himself up whilst the demon before him tensely closed his eyes. He paused at Aziraphale’s outburst and felt hands wrap neck, lifting him up._ _

__“Bring them out,” grumbled Aziraphale, huffing at Hastur’s perplexed expression and pressed his thumbs into his neck harder in the same manner the duke did before. “Your wings, you dull swift.”_ _

__Before Hastur could protest, his faded greenish wings were forced out. A muscle in his jaw tensed and shot out his hand onto Aziraphale’s shoulder, allowing maggots to creep onto him. Despite the maggots biting into Aziraphale’s skin and clothing, he paid no attention to it. Gripping onto a fistful of dull greenish feathers with each maggot bitten hand, he ripped them out._ _

__A shriek resounded in Beelzebub’s hearing, their gaze followed the inky blood dripping from the duke’s wings. Ze put their hands into their pockets before putting their hand up to silence Dagon as she opened her mouth to speak when Aziraphale kept pulling._ _

__“Alright, that’szz enough. You took out enough, leave the rest in.”_ _

__Feathers dropped to the floor, sore hands trembled as a snake slithered up his body. Crowley, in his snake form, wrapped around Aziraphale’s now healed neck. He healed any damage that was caused to his partner and to himself. Vision casted down on Hastur who covered the two bald spots on his wings with his hands._ _

__“Think it would be best to leave us alone, wouldn’t you agree? Like what I fucking sssaid last time? Unless you want to have another problem,” said Crowley and if he could smile, he would have as Hastur scowled at him with the hate obvious in his eyes. Hastur healed his thumb only to bite it while he eyed Aziraphale, walking past them and shoved demons out of his way._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Overdramatic toad gets beaten up by feral owl and dramatic snake.
> 
> Anyways, until next time ♡♡♡
> 
> Dull swift: a stupid, sluggish fellow


End file.
